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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23113492">Omni Falls</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/EJthe24th/pseuds/EJthe24th'>EJthe24th</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Ben 10 Series, Gravity Falls</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Dipper Pines, BAMF Mabel Pines, Crossover, Different characters from Ben 10 franchise will show up, Dipper gets Journal 3 and the Omnitrix, F/M, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Original Villains, Science Fiction, Some original chapters</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 16:02:09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>34,140</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23113492</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/EJthe24th/pseuds/EJthe24th</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Dipper thought Gravity Falls was weird when he got here with his sister, Mabel. Not only does he find a mysterious journal, he also finds a weird looking watch. Now with a powerful watch and an informative journal, he and his sister will discover many secrets of this town and how deep it gets.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Ford Pines/Xylene, Pacifica Northwest/Dipper Pines</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>34</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. 10 and Up</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hello readers. I'm EJthe24th, the author of Omni Falls. To be honest, this is my first fanfic I've ever published and I'm a bit nervous doing it. But my excitement and my curiosity for making this story possible outweigh my nervousness, so go figure. You guys probably are asking: "Why make a crossover of this?" Well, besides the obvious, I like these two shows a lot and want to make a universe that blends these two together like PB and J. I figured "Why not blend the action and badassness of Ben 10, with the lore and mystery of Gravity Falls, and the overarching stories between the two?" But even with all that, it's going to be a lot of work despite the fact that I'm excited to publish this. I won't have the exact date on how many chapters I will be posting but already have Season I panned out. Ahh. Not with that outta the way, please enjoy the story.</p><p>Also, I don't own Gravity Fall or Ben 10. They belong to Alex Hirsch and Disney and Man of Action and Cartoon Network. The only thing I own is this story and a plush chameleon.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Gravity Falls, Oregon. This place seems normal to average tourists, but in all honesty, they wouldn't be wrong. The town itself is surrounded by pine trees, where the forest is home to various wildlife and other….inhabitants, there is a town square with multiple buildings used for business across the various areas and town hall near the town square. Average town, average people, and average day-to-day life, right? Aside from this, there's one place where an individual will see when they come to this sleepy town: the Mystery Shack.</p><p>The Mastery Shack is simply a tourist trap. This shop is able to attract many visitors with its absurd legends and lore, yet somehow this business is able to make a large profit each time a group of gullible tourists would come by to get souvenirs and knick-knacks. The one that leads this business was "Mr. Mystery" himself, Stan Pines. He is a skilled con artist who is able to keep this shack running through lucrative means and has no shame in it, so long as he managed to make some cash. Honestly, he is rather content with this lifestyle for 30 years.</p><p>That is until his nephew and niece, Dipper and Mabel Pines arrived. The twins were bought by their parents believing they needed to be outside more and figured going to stay with their great uncle was a good idea.</p><p>The twins themselves see things differently in life: Mabel was a ball of sunshine and energy, Dipper was more critical thinking, Mabel was free-spirited while her twin brother was more self-conscious. Despite these polarities, their bond remains tightly-wound and has been ever since. The twins have different views of being in this town so far. For Mabel, she seems to have no problem with where she was; she took it in happiness and stride, whether it's having splinters in her hands or a goat chomping on her sweater, she doesn't let it bother. Dipper, on the other hand, felt on edge since he first got here. He couldn't explain it in words but he just feels like the weirdness he felt for this town was like an itch. An itch that he can't scratch. Despite this, Stan seemed to not care and was focused on his tourist trapping, to which he and Mabel work as an extra set of hands for his business.</p><p>As business is slow in the shop, one of the Pine Twins takes this as an opportunity to finally find a summer romance, as Mabel hides behind a row of Stan-bobbleheads. She peeks to see one boy reading her note aloud.</p><p>"Uh…..Do you like me? Yes? Definitely? Absolutely?", the boy reads, confused as he looks around to see who gave him the note.</p><p>"I rigged it!", Mabel whispers to herself, excited and proud her plan worked. She's on a roll. Dipper is wiping a jar as he looks at her congratulating herself.</p><p>"Mabel", Dipper states, finishing clean, "I get that you're in this "Boy Crazy" phase, but you're really overdoing it with the crazy part."</p><p>Mabel turns her head to her twin, incredulous to his claim. "What?", she scoffs, blowing a raspberry at her brother, "Come on, Dipper. This is our first summer away from home. It's my big chance to get an epic summer romance."</p><p>"I know", Dipper replies, "But does this really mean you have to be attracted to every boy you see?"</p><p>Dipper isn't really wrong about this. Since Mabel got her, she's been constantly vying for the attention for every boy that came her into peripheral vision and most of them ended in either a.) the boys being more confused about what's going on, b.) they would be uncomfortable by her presence, or c.) they would run away from her. Is she truly not self-aware about what she does that constantly, Dipper isn't really sure. He really doesn't understand why she's doing this, it is the beginning of summer. She had time.</p><p>"Mock all you want, brother" Mabel pouts, not allowing her brother's deter her from her goal "But I got a good feeling this summer. I wouldn't be surprised if the man of my dreams walked through that door right now." To her disgust and to her twin's humor, the man of dreams turns out to be her grunkle, who is choking on his own burp.</p><p>"Hey, I need someone to go hammer up these signs in the spooky part of the forest.", Stan demands, holding up Mystery Shack direction signs.</p><p>"Not it!", the Pine twins reply quickly, expressing their reluctance to do something foolish.</p><p>"Uh, also not it.", Soos, the Hispanic overweight handyman of the Mystery Shack, answers at the last minute. Stan stares at his employee with uninterested eyes. "I didn't ask you, Soos", he drones.</p><p>"I know', Soos admits, as he pulls out a chocolate bar to eat. "And I'm okay with that." Stan just facepalms in annoyance as no one is willing to take this task, so he turns to his other employee in hopes she would do it.</p><p>"Wendy!", the boss calls out to his adolescent employee. "I need you to put signs in the forest for me!" Woefully, the young redhead is too invested in her magazine reading to do anything. "I mean, I would but" she grunts as she makes a pitiful attempt to reach, being too lazy to actually do it. "Too...far...to….reach...it"</p><p>"I'd fire all of you if I could.", he grumbled, as nobody wanted to do this task. Well, it's a good thing that you have family to help you out, right? "Okay, let's make it…", Stan starts to choose, swiping his finger between Dipper and Mabel. "Eenie….meenie…..miney…..you." His finger lands on Dipper, who is in disbelief at his grunkle's choice.</p><p>"What? Grunkle Stan, whenever I'm in the woods, I feel like I'm being watched", he explains, feeling unnerved doing this, much to his grunkle's irritation.</p><p>"Ugh, this again", Stan rolls his eyes.</p><p>"I'm serious.", he insists, "Something is weird in this town. Just today, my mosquito bites spelled out 'BEWARE'" He pulls up his sleeve to show his grunkle. Stan leans down and squints to read the marks.</p><p>"That says 'BEWARB'', Stan corrects his nephew, who scratches in either in embarrassment or because it itches a bit. He sighs and gets down on a knee, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Look, kid", he explains to his nephew, "The whole "monsters in the forest" thing is just a local legend, drummed up by guys like me to sell merch to guys like that." He points to a sweaty tourist, who was way too invested in a bobblehead in his hand. Having made his point across, he gives the signs to Dipper. "So quit being paranoid and put up the signs!"</p>
<hr/><p>
  <em>Klunk-Klunk-Klunk!</em>
</p><p>Dipper couldn't believe he's doing this. Not only does his grunkle not believe what he is saying about the sensation that he got from being in this town, but he also forced him into putting up the signs up around the forest. Honestly, he just wants to get this done so he could head back because the forest is making him feel unnerved. He's just finishing putting up another sign on a tree before grabs his minipack to put the remaining arrows and tools in before continuing to trek deeper in the eerie forest.</p><p>"Ugh, of all people, it had to be me going out to the scary parts of the forest", he complains, as he looks across the various trees that sway with the wind, which doesn't help in the slightest. He still couldn't shake off the feeling, if anything, it started to slowly magnify. Honestly, what is up with this place? Why does it seem to be him who can feel this disturbance? Why is-</p><p>"Oof!"</p><p>He suddenly trips on something that scraped his knee as he lands face first. Dipper winces as he shifts onto his back as he looks at the scrape on his foot. "If I only had my first aid with me", he complains to himself, forgetting the tool that might come in handy in case something like this happens. Just as he's about to pull himself up, he notices a shining glare near his foot. Letting his curiosity get the better of him, he starts digging with his hands to pull out the object and holds it up, with one hand on top, the other at the bottom.</p><p>"What is this?", he asks himself, fascinated at the object he's holding. Said object is silvery and smooth on the surface, it has the look of an oversized pearl if Dipper wants to make a comparison. It's also very sturdy, due to him lightly knocking on the surface, and as far as he knows, there weren't any lines anywhere it could be opened, same with having no buttons. Its size isn't as big and as small to fit in both of his hands. "Hmm.", he contemplates for a moment. Should he really be taking this with to the shack after this was done? He doesn't know what this object is or what it could do, but at the same time, this can help figure what is up with this place. After a few minutes of hard thinking, he decides to carry the sphere under his armpit, continuing to do his work.</p><p>An hour passes, yet Dipper still had to put in a few more arrows. He hammers in an arrow in a tree, starting to feel exhausted from doing this. He stares at the sphere next to him, still in the same place he left before he looks at three more arrows. He started to get annoyed and remembers that he was still in the deeper parts of the forest. He looked up at the trees, which looked darker and more sinister. He grumbles before grabbing the sphere and the arrows, head to last trees. He puts down the sphere on the side of one of them, before heading to the first one, oblivious to the fact that he touched the sphere on the sides. The sphere starts to glow green on the points where his fingers touched it for a brief moment. It continues to do it until the sphere opens with a quiet hiss revealing something.</p><p>Dipper finished hammering the arrow in the tree. He walks over to the last tree, tired to the point that he wants to call it quits and head back. But he knows if he does that, Stan would chew him out. He sighs as he gets the hammer nail to put the arrow in place. "Ugh, Grunkle Stan. Nobody ever believes anything I say.", he grumbles, clearly annoyed that his grunkle with everybody else not taking heed to his words and he hammered the arrow, hearing a clang in the process…..</p><p>….</p><p>Wait.</p><p>"Huh?", Dipper is stumped. He puts his ear near the tree trunk and taps his hammer again, hearing another clang. He wipes away some dust and finds a line that opens the trunk. It acts as a secret window, revealing a mechanical box with two control switches on the top. He tests one control switch but nothing happens. He does it again with the other one; he hears the ground shifting and Gompers the goat running away. "What the?", he turns around to see a hole in the ground and in it was an old book. With the same curiosity he had for the sphere, he picks up the book and lays it on the ground, looking left and right for people to be around before opening it up. On the first page of the book, there is an eye-glass in it. He picks it up before putting it down and continues to flip through pages. Dipper goes to the next page to find some writing. "It's hard to believe it's been six years since I began studying the strange and wondrous secrets of Gravity Falls, Oregon.", Dipper reads aloud, from the page confused by this. "What is all this?", he asks, confused by the content he's finding and what they mean.</p><p>He keeps flipping through the pages seeing various creatures and phenomena. until he hits a particular page. He is intrigued by this page because of its content: On this page, is a picture of a being made entirely out of crystals, posing as if it is ready to battle something, with a blade of a right hand. But what catches his attention the most with this page is the name on top.</p><p><em>Petrosapian</em>.</p><p>He stops at the next page, reading these words</p><p>
  <em> <strong>TRUST NO ONE</strong> </em>
</p><p>"Unfortunately, my suspicions have been confirmed. I'm being watched. I must hide this book before <em>he</em> finds it. Remember: in Gravity Falls there is no one you can trust", Dipper finishes reading, before closing the book and digesting its word. "No one you can trust."</p><p>
  <em>Hummmmmmmm-Hummmmmmm</em>
</p><p>"Hu-?" Dipper turns around at the noise, only to see something green and glowing charging at him. "AAAAHHHH!" He puts his left arm up in defense before the object tackles him to the ground hard, dropping the book. He groans in pain before getting up, rubbing his head to ease the throbbing he felt and slowly blinks to bring his vision back.</p><p>He feels something on his left arm. More specifically, his wrist.</p><p>He looks down to see a watch. Once his memory came back, he starts screaming frantically, trying his hardest to pull this thing off, using sticks and rocks to remove it somehow. But it's all moot. After trying multiple times to get this thing off him, he does his best to calm himself down, breathing very slowly and sits down on the ground. He takes this moment to look at this…."watch" on his wrist. It is slim and sleek, with a green wristband, and the face of the dial is black and green hourglass. He brings the watch close to his face, inspecting it. It doesn't look like a bomb or anything. Could it be a parasite or a virus? It is too early to say but he feels normal. No pain except the dull throbbing in his head and he didn't feel sick at all. He starts pulling on the watch itself until it started to hurt him. So it confirms that whatever this thing is, it's attached to him. Okay, that's the easy part.</p><p>Now, what could this watch do?</p><p>Looking at the first time, he knows it can't tell time. So what is it? He looks at the watch before getting the journal he found and looks through some pages. So far, there's nothing in here that can explain to him what this thing is. He gets up, grabbing the journal and looks at the watch again, having no idea on what it can do. He looks at it slowly putting his finger to press the hourglass part of the watch. Maybe there is something he has to-</p><p>"HELLO!"</p><p>"AH!", Dipper screamed almost dropping the journal and instantly hid his left arm behind his back, turning to look at his twin sister. "What'cha got there, some nerd things?", Mabel inquires, curious as to what her brother has on him. This is making him nervous. How is he going to tell his sister about this?</p><p>"Uh, uh, it's nothing!", he nervously chuckles, hoping his half-attempted lie would steer him clear.</p><p>"Uh, uh it's nothing!", Mabel playfully imitating her brother, laughing at her brother's fidgety response. "Come on, are you not gonna show me?"</p><p>"Uh..", Dipper wants to make a retort but he can't find one. Honestly, Mabel is the only one he can trust with something this big. Whenever there was something that was going on with, she's the first person he would go to, so why is he afraid to tell her something like this? He is pulled out from his thoughts as he turned around to see Gompers nibbling on the journal.</p><p>He turns to his sister, "Let's go somewhere more private."</p>
<hr/><p>As Mabel sits on the recliner with her brother explaining what he found in the journal, she keeps taking a few glances at Dipper's new watch. She was curious as to where he got it because she really liked how cool it looked.</p><p>"It's amazing, Mabel!", Dipper exclaims, finally proven right about the weirdness he felt in this town. "Grunkle Stan said I was being paranoid, but according to this book, Gravity Falls has this secret dark side." He shows her various pages that he found. "And get this! After a certain point, the pages just stop, like the guy who was writing it... mysteriously disappeared."</p><p>"Wow, that's awesome", she's amazed by this, she really couldn't believe there is something odd about this town. But now, she wants to know something else. "But where did you find the watch, bro? It looks nice."</p><p>The air grows tense.</p><p>Dipper rubs his arm in nervousness, he really doesn't know how to explain this to her: this obviously wasn't a watch but he really doesn't know what it is. And he really doesn't wanna lie to her. He guesses he can figure it out later on. He inhales deeply before closing the journal looking at his sister.</p><p>"Mabel.", he starts, already feeling uneasy as he holds up the 'watch'. "When I was putting up the signs, I found this weird looking sphere. As I left next to put up the rest of the arrows, I was reading through the journal until this thing-", He points to the 'watch'. "-latched onto my wrist. I can guess that this was what was in the sphere the whole time." Mabel takes in what he says and her eyes linger on the object latched to her brother's wrist, curious as to what it is.</p><p>"Have you tried pulling it off?", she asks.</p><p>"Yes", he answers.</p><p>"Did you try pulling it off with a stick?"</p><p>"Yes."</p><p>"Smash it with the rock?"</p><p>"Yes."</p><p>"Did you try to-"</p><p>"Mabel, anything you're about to say I tried", he cuts off her questioning, "Whatever this thing is, it's near indestructible. I smashed a hammer on it and it didn't have a dent. That and, for whatever reason, it's latched on deep in my skin. No matter what we do, this watch isn't going to come off." Mabel starts to understand what he's saying, but she still looks at it. What could this thing do? She looks at her brother for a brief moment to see him looking deeply at this mysterious object, as it glows an ominous green…..</p><p>She tries to press it.</p><p>"Hey!", Dipper is snapped out of his deep thought and quickly moves his left arm away from his sister. "Mabel, what are you doing?!"</p><p>"Just wanted to see what it could do.", she admits, looking at her brother's astonished face.</p><p>"W-wha-? Mabel, we don't know what this is!", he protests, upset that his sister couldn't understand the danger this watch can hold. "For all we know, this could be a bomb of sorts or a virus, or it could be a parasite, o-or-" He stops rambling and feels his sister holding his cheeks, with a pout etched on her face.</p><p>"Dipper, calm down.", she tells her brother, "Breathe." He does what she says, feeling his heart slow and his mind clear up. "Thanks, but this still doesn't change what I said."</p><p>"How do you know it's a bomb? Or a virus?", she questions, "Has it ticked? Do you feel different?"</p><p>"I….", Dipper didn't really have a response for that. As far as he knows, the watch didn't do anything aside from glow when it latched onto him. His body feels normal and the object didn't give off any signs that it was gonna blow up. His sister's right.</p><p>Huh.</p><p>"I guess you're right.", he admits, staring at the watch, "But as of right now, let's not touch it or do anything with it...just to be safe. And I really think we should keep this to ourselves. I don't how Grinkle Stan would react to something like this."</p><p>"Okay", she agrees, respecting his decision, to which her brother thanks her. Suddenly, the doorbell rings, making Dipper jump. "Huh? Who's that?", he asks, perturbed to who's ringing the doorbell.</p><p>"Well, time to spill the beans.', she confesses as she pushes a literal can of beans. "Boop. Beans. This girl's got a date! Woot woot!" She falls back on the recliner, giggling at the fact that she finally might have a chance at a summer romance. Dipper just looks at her like she's grown a second head. How was she able to get a date so quickly, let alone actually find the boy that would agree to go on one?</p><p>"Let me get this straight", Dipper recollects, repeating himself just in case he missed something, "In the hour I was gone, you already found a boyfriend?" He's stumped when it comes to finding a logical explanation for this. There's no possible way she was able to get a boyfriend like this. Something is off.</p><p>"What can I say, Dipper?", Mabel asks rhetorically, pulling her arms into the shirt to flail her sleeves, "I guess I'm just IRRESISTIBLLLLE!" The doorbell rings again, twice.</p><p>"Oh, coming!", she runs to the door.</p><p>He sighs as his sister leaves, shaking his head at the idea of her getting a boyfriend in a day, an hour even. He sits on the recliner, reading the journal. He really is amazed by what he's finding in the journal different monsters, various items, rare phenomena, heck, even aliens like the crystal man he found. But as he's enamored by the journal, he takes a moment to look at the watch on his wrist. Honestly, he wants to know more about it but right, he doesn't wanna risk it. Maybe some other time, he'll try to figure out what it can-</p><p>"What'cha reading there, slick?"</p><p>Dipper jumps before hiding the journal. "Oh, nothing", he lies, trying to keep the journal hidden from his grunkle and immediately picks up a magazine. "I was just catching up on, uh….Gold Chains For Old Men Magazine?"</p><p>"That's a good issue." Stan guarantees, taking a sip from soda before looking at his nephew's left wrist. "Where'd you get the watch?"</p><p>Dipper looks at the watch on his hand before looking at his grunkle. "Oh, uh, I found outside. I cleaned it off and polished it to make it look better than it did before." That was a good enough lie, right?</p><p>Stan seems to buy it. "Hmm. Looks good."</p><p>"Hey, family!" Dipper and Stan turn to look at Mabel and a stranger in a black hoodie.</p><p>"Say hello to my new boyfriend!", she introduces her date as he turns around to be a brunette in a hoodie with a mysterious red liquid on his, giving a casual "S'up?"</p><p>"Hey….", Dipper greets, already feeling suspicious about this boy.</p><p>"How's it hanging?", Stan salutes with a finger pistol.</p><p>"We met in the cemetery. He's really deep.", Mabel clarifies, as she starts to feel up his bicep, "Oh, got a little muscle there." She's getting flustered by how strong he must be. Dipper doesn't like this guy.</p><p>"What's your name?", Dipper inquires, ready to know more about this guy.</p><p>"Uh…", the stranger hesitates, "Normal….MAN!"</p><p>"He means Norman', Mabels says dreamily, hugging his arm.</p><p>Dipper looks at the red liquid on his face. "Are you bleeding, Norman?"</p><p>Norman looks at the red substance before looking at Dipper defensively, "It's jam." Mabel gasped at this. "I love jam!", she cries out, swishing her hand between her and her boyfriend. "Look. At. This."</p><p>"So, you wanna hold hands...or whatever?", Norman suggests, delighting Mabel to no end. "Oh, oh, my goodness", she giggles, clearly excited at the prospect of holding hands as she runs outside. "Don't wait up!" Norman finger pistols Dipper and Stan before smack his head on the wall several and leaving out. Dipper didn't like this at all. This guy comes out of nowhere and asks Mabel out on a date but he looked suspicious.</p><p>There's something off about Norman and Dipper is gonna find out what.</p>
<hr/><p>He spent a large amount of time within the attic to find out what Norman is. So far, he's got nothing at hand to give any inkling as what he truly is and what his motive maybe. He keeps flipping through pages until he finds something that may help him.</p><p>"Known for their pale skin and bad attitudes these creatures are often mistaken for... teenagers?! Beware Gravity Falls's nefarious..." Dipper reads aloud, only to pause in fear of the page before him, showing a hooded undead figure. This means that Norman is a….</p><p>"ZOMBIE!"</p>
<hr/><p>Stan pauses what he's doing in the bathroom to look in the mirror. "Somebody say "crombie"? What is that, crombie?", Stan asks himself, confused by what he's saying. "That's not even a word. You're losing your mind." He just finished washing his hands, afterwards.</p>
<hr/><p>Dipper has to calm down. He has to calm down or else, he's going to panic. And he doesn't want that, so he breathes slowly and turns to look out the window to see his sister, Mabel sitting on a log outside, swinging her legs…..and Norman limping towards her, his hands outstretched and ready to eat her.</p><p>"Oh, no! Mabel, watch out!", Dipper calls out to his sister, scared for her safety. Norman inches closer towards her and wrapped his hands behind her neck…</p><p>Only to put on a necklace of daisies. Mabel gasps, at the sweet gesture and is smiling at him.</p><p>Dipper sighs in relief before laying down on the windowsill, thinking. Is he wrong for assuming the worst out of Norman? As far as he knows, he hasn't done anything to harm her. But at the same time, his behavior doesn't seem to be normal at all. Dipper grumbles as he puts his hands on his. "Is my sister really dating a zombie, or am I just going nuts?", he asks himself, not even sure if he had the answer.</p><p>"It's a dilemma, to be sure."</p><p>Dipper jumps up from his spot to see Soos putting up a lightbulb. Seriously, how many people are gonna keep sneaking up on him like this? He's surprised he hasn't got a heart attack.</p><p>"I couldn't help but overhear you talkin' aloud to yourself in this empty room", Soos clarifies, pulling out the screwdriver in his tool belt. "Soos, you've seen Mabel's boyfriend, right?", Dipper hesitates, trying to get a better answer from the handyman of the Mystery Shack. "He's gotta be a zombie, right?"</p><p>"Hmm', Soos thinks for a minute, twisting in the bulb. "How many brains didja see the guy eat?"</p><p>Dipper looks at Soos, before looking down embarrassed. "Zero."</p><p>"Look, dude, I believe you.", Soos reasons. Like Dipper, he has suspicion on what's really going on in this town. "I'm always noticing weird stuff in this town. Like the mailman? I'm pretty sure he's a werewolf, but you gotta have evidence. Otherwise, people will think you're a major league cuckoo clock." Dipper nods, understanding that he needs evidence in order to convince his sister that Norman isn't what seems.</p><p>"As always, Soos, you're right.", Dipper acknowledges.</p><p>"My wisdom is both a blessing and curse.", Soos replies, solemnly.</p><p>"SOOS! The portable toilets are clogged again!"</p><p>"I am needed elsewhere.", Soos backs out from where he came. Dipper looks at the camera next to the journal. Looks like he's got work to do.</p>
<hr/><p>Like Soos advised, Dipper takes as much evidence as he can between Mabel and Norman. He heads to his and Mabel's room, replaying the the recorded material he had as said sister is brushing her hair. So far, Norman always seemed to stumble, like his body lacks any motor control and his sense of balance, like when he's walking or when he failed to catch the frisbee Mabel throws at him. And when they're running in a grassy field, he seemed to have the behaviour of pulling himself out of a grave like an undead being. He also has no respect for using doors properly so that's a clue also.</p><p>"Mabel, we've got to talk about Norman", Dipper insists, really wanting her to listen to the evidence he has.</p><p>"Isn't he the best?", she asks wistfully, "Check out this big smooch mark he gave me!" She turns face to show a giant red cheek mark, making Dipper scream in horror. She laughs at his response.</p><p>"Gullible. It was an accident I had with the leaf blower.", Mabel clarifies, remembering how she was trying to do kissing practice with it but instead had the machine stuck to her face. "That was fun"</p><p>"Mabel, listen to me. I'm telling you there's Norman isn't what he seems.", Dipper explains, showing the journal to emphasize his point, to which his sister gasps.</p><p>"You think he could be a vampire", she asks, enjoying the idea that her boyfriend is a handsome vampire. "That would be awesome!</p><p>"Guess again, sister….SHA-BAM!", Dipper exclaims, opening a page in his journal making Mabel scream. Dipper checks the journal to realize he was on the page of gnomes. "Oh, sorry, wrong page...Sha-bam!" He shows her the page of the undead, making his sister roll her eyes.</p><p>"Ugh, a zombie? That's not funny, Dipper.", Mabel doesn't appreciate the revelation, thinking her brother is trolling her.</p><p>"I'm not joking, Mabel!", Dipper persists, not allowing Mabel's disbelief sway him in the slightest. "It all adds up: the bleeding, the limp. He never blinks! Have you noticed that?"</p><p>"Maybe <em>he's</em> blinking when <em>you're</em> blinking.", Mabel suggests, not really getting why her brother is getting paranoid about this.</p><p>"Mabel, have you forgotten what the journal said about Gravity Falls?", Dipper reminds her, "Trust no one…."</p><p>"Well, what about <em>me</em>, huh? Why can't you trust me?", she asks, putting on her star earrings, "Beep. Bop."</p><p>"Mabel!", Dipper grabs his sister, shaking her in the hopes that she'll come to her senses, "He's going to eat your brain!" Okay, Mabel has had enough of her brother's paranoia. She firmly removes her brother's hands from her shoulders, pushing him away.</p><p>"Dipper, listen to me.", her voice being firm when she addresses Dipper, refusing to let him voice his concerns, "Norman and I are going out on a date. And I'm going to be ADORABLE"-she points her firmly on her brother's chest-"And he's going to be DREAMY" She does it again as she continues walking up to as he keeps walking until he walks out the room. "And I'm not gonna let you ruin it with your crazy CONSPIRACIES!" She slams her, leaving Dipper speechless. He took a moment to look at it from Mabel's perspective: This is her chance at getting a date and she may not be able to get another. But does this mean he's wrong about Norman? Is he right? What is he missing?</p><p>He just sighs in defeat. "What am I gonna do?"</p>
<hr/><p>Dipper keeps looking through the videos but not with the determination he had earlier, no. He had the expression of forlorn permeate on his face. Maybe he is looking too deep into this and just allowed his paranoia to cloud his judgement. Maybe Norman is just eccentric. Maybe he just wants to look for love like Mabel does. And he is getting in their way.</p><p>The clock dings 5;00 and the doorbell rings.</p><p>"Coming!" Dipper hears Mabel shouts, looking up from the camera to look at his sister running downstairs, fixing her sweater and making herself presentable before opening the door beau. He hears Norman saying how shiny her sweater is before he sees them leaving the house and head out to the forest.</p><p>Dipper watches the video he collected from spying Mabel and her date. "Soos was right. I don't have any real evidence.", Dipper laments, realizing his mistake. He watches as the video shows Mabel teaching Norman hopscotch, only to fall over. He unconsciously fast forwards to Mabel and Norman with Norman's arm around Mabel. "I guess I can be kind of paranoid sometimes and— Wait, WHAT?!" Dipper watches Norman's hand fall off, giving a glance around reattaching it. He rewinds the tape and watches it again, just to be sure he wasn't being crazy, which only confirmed what he saw. Shocked right now, he screams and accidentally tips the chair backwards.</p><p>"I was right! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!", Dipper freaks out, running outside to get his grunkle, "Grunkle Stan! Grunkle Stan! Grunkle Stan!" He keeps trying to get his grunkle's attention, but he's too focused on showing tourists one of his attractions, so he looks around to see the mystery cart. He runs towards to see Wendy taking the key out of the ignition.</p><p>"Wendy! Wendy! Wendy! I need to borrow the golf cart so I can save my sister from a zombie!", Dipper explains, hysterical at this point, to which she gives him the keys before heading off. "Try not to hit any pedestrians." Dipper gets in the cart and starts the ignition. But before he can drive off, he sees Soos waiting for him.</p><p>Soos gives him a shovel. "This is for the zombies." Dipper takes the shovel. "Thanks." Just as he's about to leave again, Soos gives him a bat. "And this is in case you find a pinata."</p><p>"Uh...Thanks?", Dipper takes the bat, weirded out before driving off.</p><p>"Better safe than sorry!" Dipper hears Soos yell out, but he hardly focuses on it as he only cares about saving his sister.</p><p>Who knows what could be happening to her right now?</p>
<hr/><p>As Mabel and Norman stand in the forest by themselves, he turns away from her nervously, like he was hiding a dark truth.</p><p>"Uh, Mabel", Norman hesitates, holding his zipper, "Now that we've gotten to know each other, there's…" he exhales "...there's something I should tell you." The passes by as the tensity rises in the area.</p><p>"Oh, Norman, you can tell me anything!", Mabel says in mock concern. <em>Please be a vampire, please be a vampire!</em>, she thinks, excited by the prospect that her boyfriend might be what she always desired.</p><p>"All right, just... just don't freak out, okay?", he insists, making sure she doesn't get appalled by what's going to happen. "Just... just keep an open mind, be cool! He unzips his coat and throws it off and what Mabel sees surprises her. Underneath, the coat…..</p><p>Are five gnomes standing on top of each other.</p><p>"Is this weird? Is this too weird?", the top gnome asks, concerned, "Do you need to sit down?" Mabel just stands there with her mouth hung open, completely in shock that her date is something else entirely than what she expected.</p><p>"R-r-right, I'll explain. So! We're gnomes.", the gnome higher up makes clear, "First off. Get that one outta the way." His response doesn't really help as Mabel still fails to process what is transpiring in front of her.</p><p>"I'm Jeff", the top gnome introduces himself before introducing his other colleagues, "And here we have Carson, Steve, Jason and... I'm sorry, I always forget your name."</p><p>"Shmebulock!", the last gnome answers.</p><p>" Yes!", Jeff snaps his fingers before looking at the dumbfounded Mabel, "Anyways, long story short, us gnomes have been lookin' for a new queen! Right, guys?" To which, the other gnomes started to chant "Queen! Queen!", really wanting to have her as their royal subject.</p><p>"So what do you say?", Jeff asks her, before tapping his foot to cause the collective to make the body kneel and hold out an engagement ring. "Will you join us in holy matri-gnomey? Matri...matri-<em>mo</em>-ny! Blah! Can't talk today!"</p><p>Mabel is honestly dumbfounded by what is happening right now. She honestly never expected that her date would end up like this and now, it ends up like this: her being in the middle of the forest with her boyfriend, who isn't human, not even a vampire…..but a bunch of gnomes asking about for her hand in marriage. She thinks it would be better to let them off easy.</p><p>"Look... I'm sorry, guys.", Mabel apologizes, feeling awkward in explaining how she feels about the situation, "You're really sweet, but, I'm a girl, and you're gnomes, and it's like, 'what?' Yikes…" Mabel holds her arm, just explaining makes her feel uncomfortable.</p><p>"We understand.", Jeff accepts sadly, seemingly understanding that Mabel didn't want this "We'll never forget you, Mabel." The gnomes look melancholy, Mabel smiles appreciating their decision. Maybe they aren't so bad-</p><p>"Because we're gonna kidnap you."</p><p>"Huh?", Mabel takes double before Jeff leaps at her, screeching to, which she screams in terror.</p>
<hr/><p>Dipper drives as fast as he can to get to his sister and so far, he couldn't find her. Where could she be? Regardless of what happens, he still had to find her no matter what happens.</p><p>"Mabel, where are you?!", Dipper calls out. She's gotta be close, right?</p><p>"Help!", he hears his sister calling for help and heads to the sound of her voice, driving near a path that leads downwards. He stops the cart to grab the shovel and charges to the source of Mabel's cries for help, leading him witnessing her being surrounded by gnomes as she punches some them away.</p><p>Wait…..she wasn't getting attacked by a zombie but rather gnomes?</p><p>"What the heck is going on here?!", Dipper demands to which a gnome passes by him hissing.</p><p>"Dipper! Norman turned out to be a bunch of gnomes! And they're total jerks!", Mabel explains to him while trying to keep the gnomes away from here before a starts pulling on her hair. "Hair! Hair! Hair!"</p><p>"Gnomes? Huh, I was way off.", Dipper feels awkward that he got the wrong creature at this moment. He takes the journal out of his vest and reads the relevant page. "Gnomes: little men of the Gravity Falls Forest. Weaknesses: unknown.". No weakness? That might be a problem. When Dipper lowers the book, he sees that the gnomes have managed to tie Mabel to the ground.</p><p>"Aw, come on!", Mabel complains, not liking her situation at all. This makes Dipper walk towards Jeff with the shovel at hand.</p><p>"Hey! Let go of my sister!", Dipper commanded, holding the shovel close</p><p>"Oh! Ha ha, hey there!", Jeff greets, weakly. "Um, you know, this is all really just a big misunderstanding. You see, your sister's not in danger. She's just marrying all one thousand of us and becoming our gnome queen for all eternity!" He turns to the ensnared Mabel. "Isn't that right, honey?"</p><p>"You guys are buttfaces!", Mabel protests, only for a gnome to cover her mouth.</p><p>"Give her back right now, or else!, Dipper threatens, pointing the shovel at Jeff.</p><p>"You think you can stop us, boy?", the gnomes warns, narrowing his eyes. "You have no idea what we're capable of. The gnomes are a powerful race! Do not trifle with the—ah!" Dipper scoops him up and tosses him aside before he uses the shovel to cut Mabel free, to which she kicked the gnomes away and runs with her brother to the cart before driving off.</p><p>Jeff gets up, looking miffed.</p><p>"You've messed with the wrong creatures, boy! Gnomes of the forest: ASSEMBLE!"</p>
<hr/><p>The cart drives as fast as it can across the forest. So far, it seems as if they managed to get away from the little men of the forest.</p><p>"Hurry, before they come after us!", Mabel begs her brother to speed up, worried that the gnomes will come after them. Dipper, on the other hand, is not apprehensive about that notion.</p><p>"Mabel, I wouldn't worry about it. See their little legs? Those suckers are tiny!", Dipper chuckles, finding the idea that the gnomes catching up to them impossible and hilarious.</p><p>He is wrong on both fronts.</p><p>
  <em>Thump-Thump-Thump-Thump!</em>
</p><p>Dipper stops the cart and turns around to see a giant gnome, comprised of every gnome found in the forest. It roared in absolute fury.</p><p>"Dipper, step on it!", Mabel commands her brother. Dipper wastes no time and steps on the gas pedal. The cart drives as fast as it can before the Gnome Giant smashes its fist on the ground, causing some gnomes to fall the formation only to get back in. The giant gives chase and follows them.</p><p>"Give us back our queen", Jeff shouts from atop the Gnome Giant, controlling like a robot.</p><p>"It's getting closer", Mabel shouts, making Dipper wish the cart can go faster than it already can. The Gnome Giant starts to shoot out gnomes at the cart, to which they start biting at, along with attacking Dipper and Mabel. Mabel punches off a gnome hanging on the side while Dipper slams Schmebulock's face on the wheel, making him fall out. Dipper sighs in relief, only for another gnome that jumps out of the cart to scratch him.</p><p>"I'll save you, Dipper!", Mabel declares, punching the gnome while also hitting her twin brother's face until it falls out with his hat.</p><p>"Thanks, Mabel", Dipper expresses his gratitude despite feeling dazed from the punches.</p><p>"Don't mention it" , Mabel returns it, happy to help.</p><p>The Gnome Giant roars in indignation. To slow down the cart, it pulls out a giant tree and throws akin to a javelin at the runaway vehicle.</p><p>"Lookout!", Mabel points to the tree that's flying through the air before crashing, blocking their path. Dipper and Mabel scream as he swerves the the avoid crashing into the tree but only causes the cart to crash onto the ground near the Mystery Shack. Dipper and Mabel themselves out the totaled cart only to see the Gnome Giant towering over them.</p><p>"Stay back, man!", Dipper warns, showing fear towards the hulking beast before grabbing a shovel and tosses it, only for the Gnome Giant to crush it, the scared Pine Twins hold each other close.</p><p>"Where's Stan?", Dipper asks</p>
<hr/><p>"Behold!", Stan shows a swirly pattern on a stick to the tourists, "The world's most distracting object!"</p><p>"Oooh"</p><p>"Just try to look away, you can't!", Stan chuckles as he pulls the string making it spin. Eventually, everyone, Stan included, becomes distracted by the object. "I can't even remember what I was talking about.</p>
<hr/><p>"This has gone far enough kids. We're done playing games.", Jeff declares, controlling the Gnome Giant into getting closer to the Dipper and Mabel. The Giant gets close enough to snatch her into its giant hand. "Mabel, it's time for you to come back with us. This'll be much easier if you accept being our queen."</p><p>"Ah! Dipper!", Mabel cries out, trying to break free from it's hand, only to fail to do so once it starts to leave.</p><p>"Mabel!", Dipper exclaims as he tries to catch up to the "Let go of my sister!" The giant just keeps walking away, blatantly ignoring to his pleas of both Pine Twins. Dipper pulls out his journal to see if there's something he missed on the gnomes, but finds nothing. He tries again, again, and again. Only to find nothing. His sister cries for help ever present in his ears. What can he do? There's nothing he has on hand that can help him.</p><p>Except…..</p><p>Dipper looks at the mysterious watch and back at the Gnome Giant as it keeps walking away, having his sister in it's hand as she kept trying to escape while also calling out to her brother. He looks back at the watch with a mix of nervousness and determination before pressing the hourglass symbol on it, making the watch spring up (much to his surprise) showing a hologram of something. Something he found in the journal earlier.</p><p>The crystal being. The Petrosapian.</p><p>Dipper hesitates before pressing the hourglass symbol down.</p><p>In a massive glow of green light, getting the Gnome Giant's attention, Dipper's entire anatomy starts to change. His body starts to harden as cyan crystals start to cover him entirely. He feels himself starting to get stronger. Stronger than he's ever felt before and he started to become taller than he was previously. Dipper's physiology is exponentially nonidentical: He's 7 feet tall with his body, no longer skin and bones, entirely composed of cyan-colored diamond with a darkish blue jumpsuit-like uniform with a red orange stripe down the center, black boots, two sharp crystal shards on his back with a sharp head and yellow eye. And to top it off, there's an hourglass symbol on the center of his chest.</p><p>Mabel is shocked to see what brother turned into. "D-Dipper?"</p><p>The Gnome Giant was stumped. "What the? He can turn into a walking chandelier?", Jeff asks, confused as to what just happened. Unfortunately for him and the rest of the gnomes, this "walking chandelier" is not interested in answering questions.</p><p>Dipper's yellow eyes go to his sister before glaring at the colossal conglomerate of gnomes. He speaks, despite being full of bass, with determination and anger, "I'm going to say this once: Give me back my sister. Or you're gonna regret it." Mabel is blown back by how tough her brother sounds.</p><p>The Gnome Giant, on the other hand, laughs. This walking chandelier is supposed to intimidate it? Jeff wipes a tear, laughing. "Yeah, right! There's a thousand of us and only one of you. What are you gonna do? Reflect some light to make yourself shinier? Pull some of yourself off to trade for your sister?"</p><p>Dipper's eyes narrow. "No.", he simply answers, "I'm gonna do this." He pushes his left arm out and shoots speeding crystals at the Gnome Giant, as it roars in pain. He runs forward, continuing to shoot at the colossal Gnome while turning his right hand into a blade and cuts the beast's left leg, breaking off some of the beast's formation. The Gnome Giant struggles to keep itself together, while at the same time, blocking the crystals as Dipper keeps shooting at it. It tries to move away but sees that Dipper is now punching at its leg, causing some of the gnomes to fall out.</p><p>"Hey! Stop doing that!", Jeff yells out, trying to make sure Mabel stays in one hand while trying to crush this annoying gem with the other, who keeps rolling out the way and avoids getting stomped on, smashed with the other hand, and takes the shooting gnomes without even flinching.</p><p><em>I gotta find a way to get Mabel free</em>, Dipper thinks as he continues to avoid all of the Giant Gnome's attacks while also continuing to attack the on the leg he damaged. <em>There has to be a weak spot in the formation. If I can't find one, I'll make one</em>. With a boost in adrenaline, Dipper delivers a powerful hook to the left leg, causing the it to explode and by extension, the gnomes to fly off in different directions. The Gnome Giant falls on a knee, holding itself up with a hand that didn't have Mabel in it. Dipper takes advantage of this and plants both hands on the ground, causing a giant diamond piller to uppercut the giant's chin, causing the behemoth to fall to the ground letting Mabel go in the process.</p><p>"AH!", Mabel screams as she keeps falling until she feels a pair of crystal hands catch her. She looks to see Dipper caught her by summoning a pillar underneath him. The pillar goes back into the ground and Dipper puts her down. "You ok?", he asks her sister, wanting to make sure she's alright.</p><p>"Yeah.", Mabel nods, impressed by what her brother is and what he can do. "At least we know what that watch can do."</p><p>Dipper looks at his diamond hands and toward the hourglass symbol on his chest. "Yeah, at least we know." Before Dipper can ask himself what this means for him, a roar is heard, causing the crystalized Pine and his twin sister to see the Giant Gnome, fully reformed and charging at them, or specifically, the transformed Dipper. He grits his teeth before pushing both hands out, shooting out speeding crystals at the behemoth's face, making it slow down and cover it. "Mabel, get back inside!"</p><p>"But what about you?!", Mabel doesn't want to leave her brother behind, even if he is a rock monster.</p><p>Dipper turns toward his sister, not relenting in his barrage. "I'll be fine! Just get outta here before-URK!" Dipper isn't paying attention, until the Giant Gnome comes in and punt kicks Dipper into a couple of trees.</p><p>"Dipper!", Mabel shouts, appalled that her brother got sent flying from that attack.</p><p>"You know, we were going to let off easy, kid", Jeff explains, his aggravation reaching its peak. "But you have been a thorn in us gnomes' side one too many times! It's time for you to-Ah!" Jeff is interrupted as diamond shard whizzes past him, leaving a scratch on his face. This gives Dipper the opportunity to charge at the behemoth and smash his hands, which are now spiked balls, on the right leg.</p><p>But the opportunity never came. The Gnome Giant is prepared and grabs him before smashing him into the ground hard to leave a crater. He tries to break free, only to be punched into the ground and gets more stuck.</p><p>"Alright, that's it! It's time for this walking chandelier to be shattered!", Jeff growls, controlling the conglomerate of gnomes into getting ready to punch Dipper into smithereens.</p><p>"Stop!" Giant Gnome stops what it's doing to see Mabel standing in front of his transformed brother. She can't take her brother getting beat up because of her mistake.</p><p>"Alright, Mabel! It's time to make a choice: Either be our queen or watch your brother get crushed!", Jeff makes her choose, having enough of these obstacles preventing him and his gnomes from having their queen. Mabel looks at the giant beast then her brother, who is struggling to get himself free, only for the hourglass symbol on his chest to beep, blinking red before he turns back to normal. She realizes what she needs to do.</p><p>"I'll do it.", Mabel hangs her head in defeat, she accepts her fate. Dipper looks at his sister in shock.</p><p>"Mabel, what are you doing?! Are you crazy?!", Dipper exclaims in confusion and dismay. Why is she doing this? Mabel looks at her brother with a forlorn look on her face.</p><p>"Dipper. Trust me.", she simply responds. Jeff takes a 180 and is ecstatic by her decision.</p><p>"Hot dog!", Jeff cheers. "Help me down there, Jason!" He climbs down from his gnome brothers and approaches Mabel, holding out a diamond ring. "Eh? Eh?" Mabel smiles and holds her hand out, to which he puts the ring on it. "Bada-bing, bada-bam! Now let's get you back into the forest, honey!" He walks away with a pep in his step.</p><p>"You may now kiss the bride!", she announces, making Jeff stop and turn around.</p><p>"Well, don't mind if I do.", he says, before using mouth spray, smiling at his bride-to-be, who gave one of her and eyes fluttering. They lean in to kiss, only then for Mabel to take out a leaf blower and aim it at the gnome.</p><p>"Ah! Hey, hey, wait a minute!", Jeff is shocked by this. He gets sucked up in the leaf blower "Whoa, whoa! Wh-what's goin' on?!" Jeff struggles but just gets more sucked into the leaf-blower halfway.</p><p>"That's for lying to me!", Mabel yells, angry at the little man. She increases the sucking power. "THAT'S for breaking my heart!"</p><p>"Ow! My face!", Jeff groans, painfully as he slowly gets sucked in further.</p><p>And THIS is for messing with my brother!", Mabel declares aiming the leaf blower to the immobile Gnome Giant, before looking at Dipper. "Wanna do the honors?"</p><p>Dipper smiles at her. "On three!"</p><p>"One, two, three!", they chant in unison as they blast Jeff towards the gnome monster, causing all the gnomes to fly out in multiple directions. After threatening them with the leaf blower, they all retreat within the forest. As they all left, Mabel looks at her brother remorsefully.</p><p>"Hey, Dipper? I, um...I'm sorry for ignoring your advice.", Mabel apologizes, feeling sorry for not listening to her when she had the chance. ,"You really were just looking out for me."</p><p>"Oh, don't be like that. You saved our butts back there.", he encourages her.</p><p>"I guess I'm just sad that my first boyfriend turned out to be a bunch of gnomes.", she says.</p><p>"Look on the bright side.", Dipper proposes "Maybe the next one <em>will</em> be a vampire!"</p><p>"Oh, you're just saying that!", Mabel smiles, valuing her brother's gesture.</p><p>"Awkward sibling hug?", Dipper asks, his arms out. Mabel smiles and accepts it. "Awkward sibling hug."</p><p>"Pat-pat" "Pat-pat"</p>
<hr/><p>Stan is counting money when he sees the Pine Twins walk in, fatigue and untidiness.</p><p>"Sheesh. You guys got hit by a bus or something?", he laughs at the kids, who scowl at him before walking away. Seeing them like this, he decides to give them something to cheer them up.</p><p>"Hey.", Stan calls out to them, getting their attention, "Wouldn't you know it? Um, I accidentally overstocked some inventory, so, uh... how's about each of you take one item from the gift shop? On the house, y'know?"</p><p>"Really?", Mabel asks, happy at getting something.</p><p>"What's the catch", Dipper questions, suspicious as he crosses his arms.</p><p>"The catch is do it before I changed my mind.", Stan grumbles, really just wanting to do this simple gesture. Dipper and Mabel look across for different items on the shelves and grab what they wanted.</p><p>Picks up a cap with a pine tree on it and puts it on, looking in the mirror impressed. "Nice."</p><p>"And I will have a…..", Mabel says before grabbing something out the box. "Grappling Hook!"</p><p>Stan and Dipper look perplexed.</p><p>"Wouldn't you want a doll or something", Stan asks, not really why she wants the item picked. Mabel just shoots the grappling hook into the air, knocking down a shelf in the process. "Grappling Hook!"</p><p>"Fair enough", Stan shrugs.</p>
<hr/><p>As Dipper sits in his bed reading the journal while his sister keeps jumping on hers, he starts to think about what happened earlier in the day. The journal said to not trust anyone but thanks to his sister, he would probably be dead despite turning into that crystal being. Speaking of the crystal being, he wonders what the watch can do and how it can do it? So far, he can assume the watch can do more than give him just one transformation but how many are there? Did the watch have aliens that can be found in the journal like the Petrosapian? These were another addition of questions he has for the town of Gravity Falls. Dipper takes a look at his sister using her grappling hook with glee to catch a stuffed animal. She really is the only one he can trust with the secrets they have.</p><p>And he has no problem with it.</p><p>"Hey, Mabel. Can you get the light.", Dipper asks.</p><p>"On it!", she replies, aiming and shooting the grappling hook on the lamp, breaking it. "It works!" The Pine Twins get a laugh before heading to sleep.</p><p>For these two, the mysteries and strangeness in this town were only beginning.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. The Gobblewonker</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hey, guys. Sorry, I took so long with this but after the Coronavirus nonsense and before that, preparing for my job interview, and some other “fanfiction” stuff, my work in Omni Falls has been stalled for a bit. To let you guys know, by the time I have this published, I’m going straight to chapter structuring and publishing for Chapter 3 and 4 (though it might take me a while to get it done). Overall, I plan on making this crisis into something positive, you know. So without further ado, enjoy the story.</p><p>Also, I don’t own Gravity Falls or Ben 10. They belong to respective owners but it would be cool if I did. I’d probably be able to make a crossover like this official if I didn’t have to deal with legal stuff.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Are you ready for the ultimate challenge?”</p><p>“I’m always ready!”</p><p>“Then you know what that means.”</p><p>“Syrup Race!”, the twins cheer, holding their syrup bottles high in the air as the sunrise comes in Gravity Falls. Dipper and Mabel flip their syrup bottles downwards, holding their mouths out and cheering on as they watch their sweet, savory nectar slowly dip down. For a few minutes, it seems Dipper will be coming in first until Mabel taps her bottle, causing the syrup to fall on her tongue.</p><p>“Yes!”, she cheers for herself before choking a bit. “I won.” Dipper laughs in defeat while he reads the Wacky Magazine. As he reads, something catches his attention.</p><p>"Whoa-ho-ho, no way!”, Dipper exclaims, his attention rising before he shows the magazine to his twin. “Mabel, check this out.”</p><p>She looks in the magazine but on the wrong page. “Human-sized hamster balls?”, she gasps, “I’m human-size!”</p><p>“No, no, no. Not that.”, Dipper shakes his head, before pointing to a monster photo contest ad. “This. We see weirder stuff than that every day, right? Wait. Do we have any photos of the gnomes?”</p><p>“Nope.”, Mabel shakes her head before getting tuffs of gray hair out. “Just memories and some beard hair.”</p><p>Dipper stares at her weirdly. “Why did you keep it?”</p><p>“No reason.”, Mabel shrugs as she puts the gnome hair into her scrapbook. “Why not use your aliens for the contest? It’d be easier for you to just pick an alien and ‘woosh!’ You got your monster photo.” Dipper looks at his sister, unsure on her proposition. On paper, it doesn’t sound so bad. He can just morph into one of the aliens he’s found and take a picture, but there are some downsides to this.</p><p>“As easy as it sounds”, Dipper starts to explain, rubbing near his wrist where the mysterious watch is, “There’s a few downsides to this, if I activate my watch and transform, someone might get curious and see me. It would feel like I’m cheating or like taking the easy way out.”</p><p>Mabel looks at her brother and she understands where he’s coming from. “Yeah, that makes sense.”</p><p>Grunkle Stan comes into the kitchen.“Morning, knuckleheads. Guess what day it is?.” Dipper looks confused as he looks at his grunkle.</p><p>“Uh...Happy Anniversary?”, Dipper answers, unsure what Stan is getting at. Mabel just shouts “Mazel Tov!”, but the grunkle just hits his nephew on the head.</p><p>“Not even close.”, Stan grumbles before he gets back to what he’s saying, smiling as he goes into the refrigerator. “Today’s Family Fun Day. We’re cuttin’ off work and have one of those, you know…..bonding type deals.”</p><p>The twins look at their grunkle, skepticism and unease is present on their faces. “Grunkle Stan, will this be anything like our last bonding day?”, Dipper asks, not wanting to have a repeat of what happened when their grunkle wanted to spend time with them. The twin cringe at the memory of them being in the county jail.</p><p>“The county jail was so cold.”, Mabel whimpers, remembering how freezing the jail cell was.</p><p>“Alright, alright. Maybe I haven’t been the best summer ”, Stan admits, “But I swear, today we’re going to have some real family fun. Now who wants to put on some blindfolds and get into my call?”</p><p>“Yay!” Yay-wait, what?”</p>
<hr/><p>The ride itself is very bumpy. Dipper is feeling anxious while Mabel, on the other hand, feels rather distracted. “Whoa whoa!”, Dipper exclaims before sighing, “Blindfolds never lead to anything good.”</p><p>“I don’t know, Dipper.”, Mabel replies, holding her hands out. “I don’t think it’s all bad. I can feel like all my other senses are heightened. I can see with my fingers!.” She puts her hands on his face, making him laugh before the car hits a bump.</p><p>“Jeez, Grunkle Stan, are you wearing a blindfold, too?”, Dipper asks nervously, as he holds onto his seat.</p><p>“Ha ha. Nah”. Stan chuckles, pointing to his eyes, driving haphazardly, “But with these cataracts I might as well be. What is that, a woodpecker?” The next thing he knows, he crashes through the wooden guardrail, the car driving downhill as the twins scream. The ride continues to be reckless before the car stops. Stan gets out before telling Dipper and Mabel to do so.</p><p>“Okay, open ‘em”. Stan tells them, grinning. The twins unfold their blindfolds to see the surroundings they were in. There’s a large body of freshwater near the town of Gravity Falls, stretching several miles wide and having depth found in different areas with a murkish blue hue shimmering from the midday sun and a waterfall found near the far edge. Every denizen from the town is here today, both young and old, friends and family, all arriving with boats and fishing gear.</p><p>This is Lake Gravity Falls.</p><p>“It’s finishing season!”, the twins’ grunkle exclaims, donning his fishing gear and smiling. The Pine twins are confused by their uncle’s sudden need for this activity.</p><p>“Fishing?”. Mabel asks.</p><p>“Grunkle Stan, is this a joke?”, Dipper questions, skeptical of his grunkle’s urgency to go spend time with him and his sister</p><p>“Come on, kid.”, Stan insists.“You're gonna love it! The whole town's out here!” He’s not wrong; as the various denizens are enjoying themselves from fishing, taking pictures of captured fish, to even beating up caught fish. Despite this, Dipper has his doubts and looks back at his grunkle.</p><p>“That some quality family bonding”, Stan compliments, enjoying the show of bizarre family bonding.</p><p>Dipper isn’t buying this. “Grunkle Stan, is there a reason you wanna bond with us all of a sudden?”</p><p>“What? You kids are gonna enjoy it.” Stan expresses, enthusiastically, “I never had fishing buddies. Almost all of the guys at the lodge won’t go with me. They don’t ‘like’ me or ‘trust’ me.” He puts emphasis on those words through air quotes.</p><p>“Almost?”, Mabel asks, confused by what her grunkle means.</p><p>“There’s one guy I really don’t want to talk to or be around. Some guy that has a fetish with harpoons.”, Stan clarifies, “Really don’t like the guy.”</p><p>Mabel looks at her brother. She pulls him to whisper, “Dipper, I think he actually wants to fish with us.” Before Dipper can respond, Stan puts hats on his and Mabel’s head.</p><p>“Pow! Pines family fishing hats! That's hand stitching, you know.”, Stan asks. The twins take off their hats to observe them: Dipper’s hat has the word “Dippy” while Mabel’s hsd her name on it, except the L is peeled. The twins look at each other with hesitancy, they aren’t sure they would want to fish with their grunkle. They don’t feel comfortable with this.</p><p>“Yeah, liking the hats, eh?”, Stan asks them, laughing.“Well, get ready cause it’s just gonna be you, me and these goofy hats for ten hours!”</p><p>“Ten hours?!”, Dipper asks in alarm by how long they are going to be here.</p><p>“Yep, I even got the joke book.”, Stan answers, getting a book out of his jacket, 100 Yuke ‘Em Ups.</p><p>“There has to be a way out of this.”, Mabel says to her brother, sharing his reaction as he quietly says ”No, no, no.”. Something needs to stop this from happening.</p><p>Fortunately for the twins, it does.</p><p>“I SEEN IT! I SEEN IT AGAIN!”</p><p>The twins see an old gentleman wearing a tattered brown and a long white beard running from the docks, crashing into and overturning various things before heading to the shore. “The Gravity Falls Gobblewonker! Come quick before it scrabdoodles away!”, the old man proclaims before he dances frantically.</p><p>“Aw, he’s doing a happy jig.”, Mabel giggles, only for the crazed individual to grab her. “NOOO! It's a jig of grave danger!” Before the crazy old man can continue, the lake ranger comes out and sprays him, Old Man McGucket, with a spray bottle.</p><p>“Hey, hey! Now what did I tell you about scaring my customers? This is your last warning, Dad!”, the lake ranger warns.</p><p><br/>
“But I got proof this time, by gummity!”, he protests. “BEHOLD!”, Old Man McGucket hollers, pointing at his destroyed boat. “It's the Gobble-dy-wonker what done did it! It had a long neck like a gee-raffe! And wrinkly skin like...like this gentleman right here!” He points to Stan, who was picking his ear. “It chewed my boat up to smitheroons, and shim-shamed over to! YOU GOTTA BELIEVE ME!”</p><p>The crowd remains silent before a police boat pulls up to the docks, carrying Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland. “Attention all units! We got ourselves a crazy old man!”, the sheriff announces jokingly through a megaphone. Everyone but the Pine Twins and the ranger point and laugh at Old Man McGucket, the former because they feel sorry for him and the latter being silent contempt and disappointment.</p><p>“Aww, donkey spittle! Banjo polish!”, the old man mumbles, walking away with his head hung in sadness.</p><p>“Well, that happened.”, Stan speaks before steps into his rowboat and starts untying it from the dock. “Now let's untie this boat and get out on that lake!” When Stan heads to the docks to untie his worn, wooden rowboat, Dipper pulls Mabel in close.</p><p>“Mabel, did you hear what that old dude said?”, Dipper asks.</p><p>“Aww, donkey spittle”, Mabel repeats, mimicking Old Man McGucket’s voice.</p><p>“No, no.”, Dipper shakes his head, “The other thing. About the monster. If we can snag a photo of it, we can split the prize fifty-fifty.”<br/>
Mabel gasps. “That's two fifties!”</p><p>“Imagine what you could do with five. Hundred. Dollars!”, Dipper insists. Mabel is stuck in her imagination of running in a hamster ball before she comes back to reality.</p><p>“Dipper, I am one million percent on board with this!”</p><p>“Grunkle Stan!”, Dipper declares, getting Stan’s attention. “Change of plans: we're taking that boat to Scuttlebutt Island, and we're gonna find that Gobblewonker!”</p><p>“Monster hunt! Monster hunt!”, The Twins cheer. They continue to cheer until they hear honking is from a ship. The Pines family turn to the noise to see a moderate size boat come near the docks. On it is Soos and an old man in a pale vest and red cap.</p><p>“Hey, dudes.”, Soos greets the Pines Twins</p><p>“Soos!” Mabel cheers, fist bumping the handyman.</p><p>“Is this your boat, Soos?”, Dipper asks, curious as to how he managed to get a boat of this size.</p><p>“Ah, no, no.”, Soos clarifies. “I’m only renting the boat after helping Captain Shaw make some chum.” Just as he says that, Captain Shaw comes near the hull with an impassive expression. Stan glares at him, he really doesn’t want him here. Unfortunately for him, Shaw returns the glare with a scoff. The twins and Soos notice this and stay quiet and watch.</p><p>“Shaw”, Stan greets coldly.</p><p>“Stanford”, Shaw addresses, returning the gesture.</p><p>“Still polishing your harpoons?”, Stan asks condescendingly.</p><p>“Yes, just as much as you’re swindlin’ at your Shack.”, Shaw patronizes, “Anyway, Soos.” Shaw responds, looking at the handyman. “If ye wanna bring your friends on here, ya better hurry it up. We’re burning daylight.” The captain heads back to the wheel.</p><p>“Oh, right.”, Soos tells the twins. “You guys can come on board if you wanna go on, it has Sonar, high depth video set up, ultrasound-”</p><p>“Alright, alright.”, Stan interrupts. “Let's think this through. Ya kids could go waste your time on some epic monster-finding adventure, or you could spend the day learning how to tie knots and skewer worms with your Great Uncle Stan!”</p><p>The twins look at the big boat with Soos and Captain Shaw and they look at Stan’s small rowboat. They can stay with their grunkle and possibly sit in a dingy little rowboat, trying to catch catfish, along with him telling them jokes that are way out-of-touch or they can be with Soos and have a fun monster-hunting adventure, discovering the Gobblewonker and gain prize money from it.</p><p>“So whaddya say?”, Stan asks.</p>
<hr/><p>“We made the right choice!”, Mabel exclaims, excited as the boat speeds away from the docks with her and Dipper on board. Honestly, this is going to be an awesome hunt with her twin brother. And maybe, just maybe, she’ll finally get her hamster ball.</p><p>“Alright.”, Dipper begins.“If we wanna win this contest, we've gotta do it right! Think. What's the number one problem with most monster hunts?”</p><p>“You're a side character, then you die within the first five minutes of the movie.”,<br/>
Soos answers before getting scared of his safety.“Dude, am I a side character?! Do ya ever think about stuff like that?”</p><p>“No, no, no. Camera trouble! Say Bigfoot shows up. Soos, be Bigfoot.”</p><p>“‘There he is! Bigfoot!’”, Dipper exclaims, theatrically before patting his life vest.“‘Oh, no camera!’” He pulls the camera out of his jacket. “‘Oh, wait, here's one! Aw, no film!’ You see? You see what I'm doing here?</p><p>“Oh, yeah. Dude's got a point.”, Soss agrees, Mabel nodding.</p><p>“That's why I bought seventeen disposable cameras!”, Dipper informs them, revealing cameras as he lists off their locations. “Two on my ankle, three in my jacket, four for each of you, three extras in this bag, and one... under my hat! There's no way we're gonna miss this. Okay everybody, let's test our cameras out!”</p><p>Soos tries to take a photo, but he uses the camera, causing it to flash in his eyes, scaring him and throws it overboard. “Ah, sorry, dude.”</p><p>“You see? This is exactly why you need backup cameras. We still have sixteen.”, Dipper explains, glad that he took precautions for the cameras. Hopefully, they’ll be able to keep enough of the cameras to-</p><p>“Ah, bird!”, Mabel screams before throwing a camera at a seagull that is flying over her, which misses the bird and falls into the water.</p><p>“Fifteen! Okay, guys, I repeat; don't lose your cameras!”, Dipper informs them. He can’t afford to lose the cameras so early.</p><p>“Wait, lose the cameras?”, Mabel asks with three cameras in her arm, ready to be thrown.</p><p>“DON'T!”</p><p>“Dude, I just threw two away.”, Soos admits, pointing to the floating cameras.</p><p>“Alright, thirteen! We still have thirteen cameras--”, Dipper tries to calm down, only to crush another one with his fist accidentally. “Twelve. We have twelve cameras.”</p><p>“So what's the plan? Throw more cameras overboard or what?”, Mabel asks, confused on what to do with the cameras.</p><p>“No, don’t.”, Dipper replies, before moving on. “Look, why don’t you, me and Soos be on lookout?”</p><p>“What?”, Mabel asks. “Why can’t any of us be the captain?”</p><p>“Because since this is his ship, Shaw is the captain.”, Dipper replies, pointing to his Shaw, who is focused on steering the ship.</p><p>“Oh, that makes sense.”, Mabel expresses. She watches Dipper being one side of the boat, looking out for the lake monster. She heads near Captain Shaw. She notices a device hanging on the wall. It looks like a shotgun and a harpoon gun.</p><p>“Hey, Captain Shaw, what’s this thing hanging on your wall?”, Mabel asks, pointing to the weapon.</p><p>“Hm?”, Shaw turns to where she’s pointing. He looks back to the lake, answering her question. “That’d be a modified harpoon I made from scraps. I crafted it myself so I can catch the Gobblewonker in case if it’s on land or if it’s deep underwater.”</p><p>“How were you able to make it?”, Dipper follows up, turning his head to the Captain. He’s curious as to how he is able to do this.</p><p>“I was an engineer in the Navy when I was a young lad.”, Shaw answers.</p><p>“Hmm. I didn’t know you worked in the military, Captain Shaw.”, Soos speaks, eating some fish food. Shaw just turns to see him eating the fish food before he looks out at the lake and Scuttclebutt Island that was coming more into view.</p><p>“I don’t tell everyone about my past.”, Shaw explains. “Get yourselves ready, we’re about to head to Scuttlebutt Island soon.”</p><p>“Uh, Captain Shaw”, Dipper asks the captain, “What does the Gobblwonker look like?” He wants to know what the beast looks like when he sees it.</p><p>“It has a long neck with grayish-like scales. It has a height of at least 15 feet and has two large teeth from its lower jaw.”, Shaw responds, going through the details of the beast’s description. “I remember seeing the beast when I was out fishing one night, as it destroyed my ship in a fit of rage. To this day, I haven’t forgotten about that encounter and I hope to catch the beast.” After taking in everything Captain Shaw says, Dipper thanks him and heads back near the side of the ship, watching as Scuttlebutt Island gets closer into view. His mind starts to think about contingencies, in case something happens if the Gobblewonker acts aggressively like Old man McGucket and Captain Shaw describes it. He looks down at his watch and thinks about it.</p><p>Hmm. It’s not a good idea to use out in the open, especially around Soos or Captain Shaw. Dipper thinks. Hopefully, we can get the photo and I won’t have to resort to using it. He’s so focused on looking at the island that he doesn’t pay attention to the pelican that lands near him. “Hey! How's it going?” Mabel greets the pelican. She grabs its bill, uses the bird as a ventriloquist dummy. “It's going awesome! Bow bow, buh bow bow!”</p><p>“Mabel, leave that thing alone.”, Dipper scolds his sister, not even looking at her.</p><p>“Aw, I don't mind none!”, Mabel jokes as she makes the bird seem like it’s talking. She stops for a moment to get a bottle of water. “Hey, look Dipper, I'm drinking water!”, Mabel gets her brother’s attention before chugging down the water while ventriloquizing the pelican. “Twinkle, twinkle little…”, she stops as she chokes on the water, making the pelican fly away.</p><p>“Shouldn’t you and Soos be on look out?”, Dipper chastises, hiding his nervousness in the form of aggravation.</p><p>“Look out!”, Mabel gasps. Dipper turns to where she’s unaware of Mabel throwing a volleyball on his arm. Mabel laughs as he holds his arm, grumbling. “But seriously, it’s all good. Captain Shaw would let us know when we’re there.”</p>
<hr/><p>Grunkle Stan watches as the boat harboring Dipper and Mabel gets closer to Scuttlebutt Island. “Traitors!”, the Old Pine yells at the far away boat. The twerps would rather be on a monster hunt than spend time with him, well fine then. He doesn’t need them. “Ah, I'll find my own fishing buddies.”, Stan declares to himself. He looks around and sees a couple sitting in a boat up ahead. “Ah!”, Stan beams as he starts his boat's engine, heading over to them “There's my new pals!”</p><p>Upon closer inspection, the young man of this couple was about to propose. Grunkle being ignorant to this heads towards them. “Hey!”, Stan calls to the couple, pulls his boat up to theirs, completely disregarding their appalled expression on their faces. “Wanna hear a joke? Here goes. My ex-wife still misses me...but her aim is gettin' better!” There’s no laughs, not even a chuckle from the couple, only looks of abhorrence from his offensive joke.“Y'see, it's funny cause marriage is terrible.”</p><p>There is silence before the couple rows away, not even glancing or responding back at the conman.</p><p>“Was it something I said?”</p>
<hr/><p>The quartet disembarks from the ship and ventures into the foggy woods. Captain Shaw is a few feet ahead of them, making Dipper be the one leading the while carrying a flashlight. They soon come to a large sign nailed to a tree that says "Scuttlebutt Island." Soos and Mabel stop in front of it.</p><p>“Dude, check it out.”, Soos gets Mabel’s attention and covers the "Scuttle" part of the sign. “Butt Island.”</p><p>“Soos, you rapscallion!”, Mabel chortles. She looks at Dipper, whose focus on looking across the foggy background. “Hey. Why aren't you laughing? Are you scared?”</p><p>“What?”, Dipper questions looking at his twin, “Mabel, I'm not--” Mabel pokes him on the nose, with a teasing grin.</p><p>“Yeah, you are.”, Mabel teases, blowing a raspberry and continues to poke her brother in the face.</p><p>“Hey! Quit it...! Stop it, Mabel!”, Dipper tries to make her stop to no avail until she unintentionally pokes him in the eye. “Ow!” Dipper holds his eye, wincing. Mabel gasps at what she’s done.</p><p>“Oh, I’m sorry, Dipper”, Mabel apologizes. Dipper lets go of his eye, despite it being closed.</p><p>“No, no. It's fine.”, Dipper waves his hand before turning around. "You didn't mean to--Uagh!" He trips and falls into a small mud pit. Mabel and Soos gasp before helping Dipper up.</p><p>"Dude, you ok?", Soos asks.</p><p>"Yeah, I’m ok.", Dipper replies before he gets the flashlight that conked out. Good thing I left the journal back on the boat, Dipper thinks, really grateful that he didn’t have the book in his life vest. He fishes for it but he feels something else…..something slimy. Realizing this, he grabs it and it looks like a dirty ball. But on further exception, it’s a slimy sphere with grayish green color, including dark green veins pulsing. And on top of that, it is warm.</p><p>"Whoa, what is that", Mabel asks, astonished.</p><p>“It looks like a dirty beach ball", Soos curious to what the young Pine is holding.</p><p>“I don’t think so, Soos”, Dipper honestly answers. "I think this is an egg."</p><p>Captain Shaw comes back to the group with his harpoon gun in hand with a look of interest as he looks at the egg Dipper is holding. “What is that?”, He asks, his eyes not leaving the sphere.</p><p>“I think Dipper found an egg”, Soos answers, looking fascinated by this bizarre object.</p><p>“And not just any egg”, Dipper adds on, inspecting like a scientist looking under a microscope. “Judging by the color of it and the minor warmth I feel from it, it looks like it belongs to the Gobblewonker.”</p><p>“Are you sure”, the Captain asks, wanting to be certain, to which Dipper nods his head.</p><p>Captain remains quiet for a moment. This could be a good opportunity for him to add to his collection. But at the same time, after he’s been tracking the creature’s movements, getting every piece of equipment he can craft, and making sure his boat was in tip-top shape, he doesn’t want to leave the catch of the century to slip through his grasp.</p><p>“You maybe right, boy”, Captain admits. He straps the harpoon gun on his shoulder and crosses his arms, thinking. “Will you three be alright if I take the egg back to the ship?”</p><p>“Yeah, I think we’ll manage.”, Dipper answers with Mabel and Soos agreeing.</p><p>“Alright, I’ll take this back to the ship.”, Captain Shaw takes the egg, “I’ll be back soon.” He walks back to the path leading to his ship. His figure becomes silhouetted by the fog until he finally leaves. The trio trek a little further until there's a growling noise in the distance and they look around, trying to find the source.</p><p>“Dude, did you guys hear that?”, Soos asks them.</p><p>“Yep. I think we’re getting close.”, Dipper looks out in the distance, almost sure that they were getting closer to the beast they sought.</p><p>“I dunno, man.”, Soos speaks, nervousness showing in his voice. “Maybe this, uh... Maybe this isn't worth it.”</p><p>“Not worth it?”, Dipper asks, incredulously. “Guys, imagine what would happen if we got that picture.” Dipper imagines the recognition he’d get for capturing photos of the Gobblewonker, same with his sister as she imagines having the hamster really wants.</p><p>“I'm in!”, Mabel smiles as she follows her twin to where the sound emanated from.</p><p>“All right, dudes.”, Soos relents. He tries to catch up to them. ”I'm comin'!”</p>
<hr/><p>To say Stan is annoyed would be an understatement. He tried to make fishing buddies but that caused him to get yelled at by his buddy’s parents and get chased by the lake police, getting an ankle bracelet. None of this would have happened if the kids just stayed and spent time with him fishing, but no. they’d rather go on a monster hunt instead. He sits on his boat, struggling to tie a knot getting more. “Er, ugh, gah! Mollycoddling…”, he growls, getting more frustrated with the knot.</p><p>He stops what he’s doing to see a boat a few yards away with twins and their Grandpa sitting in it. He frowns at them because it reminds of something he wanted to do with the kids.</p><p>“Can you pwease tell me mo'e funny stories, Pop Pop?”, the young boy asks his grandpa.</p><p>“Anything for my fishing buddies!”, he laughs, patting his grandchildren on their heads, much to Stan’s irritation.</p><p>“Pop Pop?”, the cute little boy starts.“I just weewized dat...I wuv you.” He and his twin sister’s eyes are filled with familial love for their grand patriarch.</p><p>Alright, he’s had enough of this sickeningly sweet showing of affection.“Aw, come on! Boo! Boo!”, Stan jeers.</p><p>“Hey, now! What's the big idea?”, the grandfather frowns.</p><p>“Maybe he has no one who wuvs him, Pop Pop.”, the young boy suggests, sympathy clearly in his voice.</p><p>“Yeah, well, I... I…”, Stan tries to retort but he doesn’t have anything to give. He just sighs before saying “Nevermind.” The conman sits back in his boat and stares ruefully at his reflection.</p><p>So much for having a day of family bonding.</p>
<hr/><p>The trio head deeper into the forest, slowly but surely making their way to the Gobblewonker. While this is happening, Mabel takes this opportunity to start rapping, while Soos starts beatboxing.</p><p>“My name is Mabel!”, Mabel raps haphazardly, enjoying herself. “It rhymes with table! It also rhymes with glable! It also rhymes with schmable!”</p><p>“Dude, we should be writing this down!”, Soos chuckles.</p><p>“Guys!”, Dipper whispers, getting their attention while holding up his camera. “You hear something?”</p><p>The growling noise from earlier can be heard, except it’s closer than it was before, making a flock of birds fly overhead, away from the sound. The twins punch each other excitedly and walk towards the sound, with Soos not far behind them. He grabs a stick and follows them into the fog. Walking through the fog first, Soos stops the group when he spots a lake monster silhouette. The group ducks behind a log.</p><p>“Everyone!” Dipper whisper shouts. “Get your cameras ready!”</p><p>Soos yells and jumps over the log, holding his camera in front of him as he runs toward the silhouette, snapping photos at random. The twins follow him, but as they get closer, they discover the silhouette was the remains of a wrecked boat with beavers living on it. Dipper and Mabel are at a loss for words with what they’re seeing; they’re certain they heard the lake monster’s growling.</p><p>“But what was that noise, then? I heard a monster noise!”, Dipper asks, only to a beaver chewing on, and sometimes activating, a rusty old chainsaw. So that’s what they heard. Dipper still looks onward to see if the beast is still out there. While the twins look at the lake in uncertainty, Soos takes this opportunity to take photos of the beavers.</p><p>“Does this mean the Cobblewonker isn’t real?”, Mabel asks her brother</p><p>“No, no, no, Mabel”, Dipper answers “It’s just a red herring.” He sits on a rock and throws a stone into the lake and sighs. There’s no way the Gobblewonker couldn’t exist.</p><p>“What do you mean?”, Mabel asks, raising an eyebrow at her twin brother.</p><p>“Think about it.”, Dipper tells her, determined. “The Gobblewonker exists. It has to.”</p><p>“But what if Captain Shaw and that old man were wrong?”</p><p>“Hmm. They can’t be wrong because there’s one factor to take into consideration: The egg.”</p><p>“Oh, that’s right. But if the Gobblewonker exists, then where could it be?”</p><p>“Hmm.” , Dipper thinks. “Maybe it’s looking for...” Before the young Pine can give an idea, the rock he's sitting on shakes. The twins look at the ground as it shakes, with Soos stopping. The rock sinks under the water and Dipper swims to shore in haste. The group all look to see the Gobblewonker's silhouette is seen swimming away</p><p>“This is it!”, Dipper gasps as he takes pictures of the beast. “Come on! This is our chance!” He turns to them, seeing Soos and Mabel back up. “What's wrong with you guys?” What he doesn’t know is the Gobblewonker swimming back towards the island and begins to rise as the others try to warn him.</p><p>“It's not that hard, all right?”, Dipper keeps trying to tell them, completely unaware of the lake monster getting closer towards him. “All you gotta do is point, and shoot. Like this.” He aims his camera at Gobblewonker and realizes it's right in front of him. The beast oars, causing Dipper to gasp and drop his camera and the three run away as Soos yells “Run!”</p><p>The Gobblewonker pushes a tree over which falls and almost hits Dipper and Mabel, but Dipper lunges and Mabel and they roll out of the way. They continue to run and dodge falling trees and eventually catch up with Soos.</p><p>“Dipper, now would be a good time to use the watch!”, Mabel insists as she runs as fast as her legs can take her.</p><p>“B-but what about Soos?! Or Captain Shaw?!”, Dipper asks, dodging the trees. Should he really do this? What would happen if Soos found his secret?</p><p>“Does that really matter now!”, Mabel asks, incredulously. The Gobblewonker snaps at Mabel who hops onto Soos's back.</p><p>“Get back to the boat! HURRY!”, Soos yells.</p><p>Seeing the lake monster try to attack his sister, he holds his left wrist, almost activating the watch. But he trips over a root, dropping the camera. He tries to get it back but Soos grabs him, running as fast as he could away from the lake monster.</p><p>“Soos! The picture!”, Dipper yells.</p><p>“Dude, if it makes you feel any better, I got tons of pictures of those beavers, dude!”, Soos tries reassures hm</p><p>“WHY WOULD THAT MAKE ME FEEL BETTER?!"</p>
<hr/><p>Captain Shaw whistles as he puts the egg into a crate, wiping off some sweat off his brow. He's heard some of the growling coming from deep with the island until his eyes widen at seeing the twins and Soos running from the Gobblewonker. "Hurry up! Get on the ship", the captain speaks before heading to the ladder to climb down. Just as he does, he sees the handyman and the twins running to ship, climbing up the ladder. When he turns to look back to the island, he sees the Gobblewonker getting close to the ship. Realizing what’s going on he heads back to the wheel and starts the ignition.</p><p>“Hang on!”, the Captain calls out, starting the engine and the boat starts speeding away from the lake monster. Despite the boat going at its fastest, the Gobblewonker is slowly starting to get closer to it. Dipper starts to look at the watch before looking at his sister, who is looking uneasy herself. He then realizes that he has a perfect shot of the lake monster.</p><p>“All right! This is it!”, he tries to take a picture but notices that the camera is broken. “Cracked lens?! Soos! Get a photo!” He turns to see Soos throwing cameras at the Gobblewonker that was in pursuit.</p><p>“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”, Dipper holds his head in disbelief.</p><p>“Oh! I still got one left! Don't worry, dude!” Soos throws a camera to Dipper but misses hitting the wall and breaking the camera. As he sees the camera's pieces fall into the lake, he also sees the Gobblewonker gaining on them.</p><p>“Captain Shaw!”, Dipper calls out to him. “The Gobblewonker is gaining on us.”</p><p>“I know.”, Shaw answers, his voice being hard as stone, as he slows down the boat and heads the hull, where the twins are. He grabs his harpoon gun, ready to shoot the beast.</p><p>“Captain Shaw, what’re you doing?”, Soos asks.</p><p>“Getting the catch of the century.”, the captain answers, waiting for the beast to get a little bit closer to pull the trigger.</p><p>“A-are you sure that’ll stop that thing?” Dipper asks, getting more antsy as the monster gets a little closer.</p><p>“We’re about to find out.”, Shaw answers, his voice being certain. He’s waited this long to catch this beast and now he’s going to fulfill it. The captain fires the harpoon; it hits between the beast’s clavicle and interclavicle. The lake monster screeches in pain as the spear remains stuck in its “flesh”.</p><p>The captain laughs. “Finally, I caught ya, beast.”</p><p>“So, uh, what happens now?”. Mabel questions, trying to figure out what Shaw was going to do next.</p><p>The captain gets another harpoon, reloading it and firing another one near the same place. The Gobblewonker gets aggravated and starts thrashing around. The boat gets shaken causing everyone to hang on. The hardened Captain Shaw grabs the harpoon gun and starts reeling but he is struggling, he looks at Soos.</p><p>“Soos, I need you to go press the button to reel the beast in!”, Shaw commands the handyman.</p><p>“Um….o-okay”, Soos hesitates. He heads to the wheel and sees too many buttons to press. Until he sees a sticky note saying “Reeling”. He presses the button and the crane on top of the control deck starts reeling in the lake monster. Captain Shaw laughs at his success of catching this monstrosity. Mabel looks relieved for a moment before she looks at her brother, who’s looking at the Gobblewonker moving less than it did before.</p><p>“Dipper, what’s wrong?”, Mabel asks, confused as to why her brother is looking at the beast in slight fear.</p><p>“Mabel, something’s not right. Did you notice how it’s slowed down its movements?”, Dipper asks, trying to replay her memory of their time watching the nature channel.</p><p>“Yeah. And?”, she answers.</p><p>“And do you remember when we watched the nature channel?”, Dipper follows up.</p><p>“Well, yeah.”, she responds but gets more confused, “But what does that have to do with now?”</p><p>“When an animal gets hunted.”, Dipper starts explaining,“It’ll do one of two things: it will either surrender its life if it can’t fight back or it’ll fight back even harder than before. Mabel...what do you it’s doing now?” His eyes never leave the beast that is getting closer to the ship. When he looks at her, he can see the gears shifting in her as she has the same expression as he does. Any animal that’s being hunted will be fighting back if it feels threatened or if it gets cornered, whether it be stuck in a spider’s web, or in the teeth of a lion, or in the claws of a bird, it will fight back. That’s when she, like her brother, realized that the Gobblewonker isn’t forfeiting its life.</p><p>It's trying to bait them.</p><p>“Captain Shaw!”, the twins call out.</p><p>“What is it?”, the captain answers, turning towards the frightened children, not realizing his mistake and in a span of minutes, the Gobblewonker thrashes about as if it found its second wind. This leads to Captain Shaw getting hit to the port side of the boat and the lake monster breaking the crane, freeing itself as it roars in ravousness vengeance. Soos sees this and speeds up the boat as the Gobblewonker rips out the harpoon with its teeth, growling as it chases after the boat.</p><p>“Hang on, dudes!”, he calls out as he speeds up the boat.</p><p>The Gobblewonker gets close enough to snap at the ship. Mabel tries to find a way to fend off the beast while Dipper activates the watch, looking for the right alien to stop the lake monster. She finds a flare gun and shots at it. The flare hits the beast’s eye and it roars in aggravation. Dipper gets more terrified as he looks through the watch to find the Petrosapian but something catches his eye. He sees the gray-green in the crate.</p><p>He starts to pull the egg out and starts to carry it to the angry, much to his sister’s fear.</p><p>“Dipper, what are you doing?!”, Mabel asks, scared for her brother’s safety.</p><p>“The Gobblewonker is probably acting like this is because it probably wants its egg”, Dipper answers as he struggles to carry the egg to the Gobblewonker. “So I gotta give it back to it.”</p><p>He holds up the egg to the Gobblewonker. It stops roaring to look at it, but as it gets closer it roars and it slams its head on the ship again, knocking out him and egg overboard. Dipper screams as he falls into the water.</p><p>“Dipper!”, Mabel screams out.</p>
<hr/><p>As he sinks, he looks around to see he’s sinking underwater to see ripples. He can tell that the Gobblewonker is catching up to the boat and soon enough, his sister and Soos are going to be……</p><p>Dipper shakes his head and gives one reluctant look at the egg before he swims back up to the surface. He gasps for air and sees the Gobblewonker and boat speeding off and he activates the watch, he finds a new alien. The hologram shows it looking like a marathon runner, slender, posed to sprint off, with the feet of skates? “Well, here goes nothing!”, Dipper declares before slamming the faceplate down on the watch.</p><p>It’s here that Dipper starts to transform: He feels his body turning lean, his hands turning into claws, his legs becoming toned, ready for high-speed running, his head morphing into sharp and slant shape. The altered Pine looks like a semi-armored Velociraptor. He has black orbs on his feet, a black conoid helmet with a visor that is part of his Kineceleran biology, a blue face, green eyes, black lips, and stripes above and on the right side of his eyes, five blue stripes on his tail, and wears black pants and a turtleneck-like shirt with a white stripe on the center. The hourglass symbol is on his chest.</p><p>“Okay, from what I gathered from the journal”, Dipper analyzes, recalling what he learned from the journal on the Kineceleran. “This alien’s species is able to travel 500 miles in under 2 seconds. Let’s put it to the test!” Dipper activates his visor and speeds up but because his feet are underwater for a moment, he can’t reach the speed he would like but he starts to build up momentum, allowing him to be able to run on water. “Whoaugh!”, Dipper almost loses balance before regaining it and he sees the ship and the Gobblewonker trying to close to the ship and onto his sister. He pushes himself to go faster and just before the Gobblewonker chomps his sister, the transformed Pine jumps onto the speeding ship and punches it in the face. The lake monster screeches in pain and tries to snap at the speedy alien, only for it to be struck at different angles on its face by him. The Gobblewonker heads underwater, seemingly leaving the boat alone.</p><p>Soos and Mabel look in awe at the new alien. Mabel for her part is amazed by the new alien Dipper found in his watch, Soos is astonished by this speedy, blue alien.</p><p>“Whoa. Nice work, Dipper!”, Mabel congratulates, before she covers her mouth. Dipper turns to his sister with his visor off, with a shocked expression.</p><p>“Mabel!”, the transformed Pine hisses. Soos looks at the speedy alien’s face for a moment and hesitates to ask.</p><p>“Dipper, is that you, dude?”, Soos asks, wanting to know if this creature is really Dipper.</p><p>Dipper is quiet and hesitant. He sighs before answering, “Yes, Soos. It’s-Look out!” Soos turns around to see the boat crash through the beavers’ dam, making the some of beavers crash onto it and landing on the trio and the ship, two bite Dipper on the arms, one bite’s Mabel’s arm, and another bites Soos on the buttcheek, making the handy run in circles, screaming in pain. the rest bite on any part of the ship they can find.</p><p>The shapeshifting Pine notices this and takes action. He shakes off the beavers on his arms in high speed before rushing through, taking the beavers off Mabel, Soos, the still unconscious Captain Shaw, and the rest of the ship. He holds all of them in his hand before heading to the back of the ship.</p><p>“Dipper, what are you-”, Mabel stops herself when he sees her brother use his super speed to chuck the beavers off the boat and into the lake. He throws all 30 of them off the ship in under a minute. Once he’s done, the hourglass emblem on his chest starts beeping, the red signaling he’s turning back to normal. In a flash of green light, Dipper is back to being human. Soos looks to be in bewilderment at what just happened.</p><p>“Whoa, dude, how’d you do that? Like transform into a speed demon or something?”, Soos questions, still can’t figure out what’s going on</p><p>“Long story short.”, Mabel summarizes.“Dipper went into the forest and found a watch that allows him to morph into aliens.”</p><p>“Mabel!”, Dipper admonishes before giving a huff. ”Look Soos, I know this is a lot to ask, but can you please keep this a secret? I don’t know how Stan would react to this.”</p><p>Soos seems unsure for a moment but he sees the way the Pine Twins are looking at him, the unspoken pleading expression they’re giving him...he couldn’t find in himself to say no.</p><p>“Well, ok-”, Soos is interrupted by a roar. The group look to see the Gobblewonker has risen up, swaying the boat dangerously with the wave that it just made.</p><p>“The Gobblewonker!”, Mabel screams.</p><p>Dipper turns to Soos. “Soos, the wheel!”</p><p>Soos heads back to the wheel of the ship. Mabel gets the flare gun and keeps shooting at the beast with little to no effect, only provoking it and starting to catch up, as the beast destroys a multitude of ships to get the group’s. A beeping alarms Dipper and he looks to see the enigmatic watch being green again. He presses it and the hourglass symbol springs up. Okay, what can help right now?, he thinks. Unfortunately, Dipper doesn’t know all the aliens in the watch and he didn’t have time to read through the entire journal to figure out what aliens can be found in it. He switches until he finds a particular one. Let’s see what this can do!</p><p>He slams down the faceplate and his anatomy gets restructured: In a blinding light, his skin starts turning tough and shell-like, his natural pigmentation turning crimson, his fingers turning into claws, he also has a mollusk shell on top of his head, and there are multiple portholes appearing on his shoulders, arms, and legs.</p><p>Dipper is now a red, mollusk-like alien with green eyes, and a grey mouth that does not move when he speaks. Behind his legs and on the top of his arms are small spikes that are grey, there are black spots on his shoulders and legs, and on his hands, there are portholes, which he uses to shoot water. He also has four fingers with claws on them and on each of his feet, there is a grey spike. His lower torso is grey, with two spikes on the side of it.</p><p>“Mabel, get back!”, Dipper commands his twin sister. She does so and as the Gobblewonker gets close, the genetically altered Pine holds his hands out and condensed, scalding water sprays out of his portholes in his palms. The sprayed water strikes the beast in its snout, making it roar in pain and make it slow down for a moment. Despite being scalded, the beast pushes through it, trying to gulp the ship and its passengers. Dipper grunts as he condenses the water even further, but in the back of his mind, he knows he can’t keep doing this forever. The Gobblewonker is nothing but relentless.</p><p>“Dipper, what do we do?!”, Mabel yells out to her transformed brother.</p><p>“Get the Journal! There’s a map in one of the pages!”, Water Hazard responds, spraying its water cannons at the beast keeping it at a distance away from the boat. Mabel looks for the journal. She looks around until she sees it near to the side of the boat and runs towards it . She grabs the journal and quickly scrolls through the pages until she finds it.</p><p>“Where do I go, little dudes?!”, Soos asks</p><p>“Soos! Go into the waterfall!”, Mabel informs the handyman. “There might be a cave behind there!”</p><p>“Are you serious?!”, the handyman asks, disbelief harboring his voice.</p><p>“Just do it, Soos!”, Water Hazard demands, grunting as he tries to add more power to the water blasts. The Gobblewonker, despite being pushed back, gets closer to the quartet as Mabel and Soos scream and the boat goes through the waterfall and into a cave behind it.</p><p>Their boat crashes, sending Water Hazard, Mabel, Soos, and the unconscious Captain Shaw into the dirt. The captain struggles to get up as the hourglass symbol on Dipper’s chest beeps before he reverts back to being human. The three of them, with the exception of Shaw, stand up and turn around to see the Gobblewonker swim in after them and get stuck in the cave entrance. Fortunately for them, the beast gets stuck in the caves entrance. It tries so hard to move around and break free but it’s struggles remain moot.</p><p>Mabel laughs, “Ha! It’s stuck!”</p><p>Dipper gets up and looks at the beast, laughing. “Ha ha! Yeah! Wait.”, he stops and realizes what he just said. “It's stuck?” He tries to find a camera but, for some reason, he can’t.</p><p>Luckily, his sister helps him by removing his hat. “Boop.”</p><p>He takes it from her and runs up to the side of the cave's terrain, with Mabel and Soos not far behind him, to get photos of the Gobblewonker’s face up close even though it tries (and fail) to chomp at him, laughing in joy at finally getting the monster photos he and Mabel have been waiting for. As Captain Shaw gets up, he sees his modified harpoon gun and turns to see the Gobblewonker stuck, which jolts the old man up. He gets the gun and runs up to the terrain where the Pine Twins and Soos.</p><p>“Move outta my way!”, Captain Shaw yells, shooting the Gobblewonker in its head, making it screech in pain. The captain laughs in victory as he finally downs the lake monster he’s chased after, while the rest were in shock and unease by how the captain just killed the beast. Just then, the group hears the Gobblewonker’s head descend with an electric noise, making them confused.</p><p>This makes Dipper question what’s going with the beast. “What the...?” He walks up to the Gobblewonker and touches its side, which looks artificial. “Huh?”</p><p>“What's wrong?”, Mabel asks.</p><p>Dipper steps on the gobblewonker and knocks it. It makes a hollow metallic sound, piquing his interest even more, making Dipper climb up the Gobblewonker. As he does, he feels the scales that are cold, not like a reptile cold but rather the cool that comes from certain metals.</p><p>“Careful, dude!”, Soos insists.</p><p>“I've got this! Hold on!”, Dipper tells the group as he climbs over the Gobblewonker, then pops up from the other side. “Hey, guys! Come check this out!” The gang discovers a handle and turns it, causing steam to come out. They open the trapdoor causing more steam to come out and they discover Old Man MacGucket from earlier inside controlling a machine.</p><p>“Work the bellows and the...Eh?”, the hillbilly stops what he’s doing to see Dipper, Mabel, and Soos confused while Captain Shaw is being on the edge of losing it. “Aww, banjo polish!”</p><p>“Wha-You?”, Dipper stutters. “You made this? W-w-why?</p><p>“Well, I...I, uh…”, the hillbilly tries to make up a reason, but after looking at them he just ends up being honest. “I just wanted attention.”</p><p>“Explain.”, Captain Shaw demands.</p><p>“Well, first I just hootenannied up a biomechanical brainwave generator, and then I learned to operate a stick-shift with ma beard!” He shows them how he picks up his tool with his beard.</p><p>“Okay, yeah. But why did you do it?”, Mabel asks.</p><p>“Well, when you get to be an old fella like me, nobody pays any attention to you anymore. My own son hasn't visited me in months!”, Old Man MacGucket explains. “So I figured maybe I'd catch his fancy with a fifteen ton aquatic robut! In retrospect, it seems a bit contrived. You just don't know the length us old-timers go through for a little quality time with our family.”</p><p>“Ye mean to tell me that the Gobblewonker is nothing but bells and whistles?”, Captain Shaw shouts. He’s been dedicated to getting the catch of the century and now the beast he has been hunting for is nothing but a fake?</p><p>“Yep.”, the crazy old man replies, which didn’t stop the veins from popping on Captain Shaw’s forehead and walks off the mechanical beast to his boat to cool down some steam. As he leaves, the Pine Twins look at the fishing hats Grunkle Stan gave them and sigh, both looking forlornly</p><p>“Dude. I guess the real lake monster is you two. Heh, heh! Sorry, that just like--boom--just popped into my head there.”</p><p>“So, did you ever talk to your son about how you felt?”, Mabel asks</p><p>“No, sir, I got to work straight on the robut! I made lots of robuts in my day!”, the old hillbilly explains as a projector shows, presenting each mechanical creation and different people. “Like when my wife left me and I created a homicidal pterodactyl-tron, or when my pal Ernie didn't come to my retirement party and I constructed an eighty ton SHAME BOT THAT EXPLODED THE ENTIRE DOWNTOWN AREA! Well, time to get back to work on my death ray!” The crazy old man ducks into the Gobblewonker and starts constructing a new machine inside.</p><p>He raises his hand out. “Any of you kids got a screwdriver?”</p><p>Dipper takes out the camera. “Well, so much for the photo contest.” He looks at it regretful for what he did to Grunkle Stan.</p><p>“You still have one roll of film left.”, Mabel says, with a sad look of her own.</p><p>“Whaddya wanna do with it?”, he asks. The twins look at each other and deep down they know what they want to do with the camera.</p>
<hr/><p>The sun sets as Stan guides his boat to shore. Honestly, he’s upset that the kids didn’t go fishing with him, but whatever. It’s their loss if they wanted to go on some monster hunt with Soos and that annoying Captain Shaw or whatever is they’re doing.</p><p>“Hey! Over here!” Stan’s attention is diverted from the shore and to see Captain Shaw’s ship in a bit of damage, driving by his boat. As both boats stop, the conman sees Soos, Mabel, and Dipper, the latter of the three who takes a photo of Stan.</p><p>What the-- Kids? I thought you two were off playing "Spin the Bottle" with Soos, or polishing Captain Shaw’s harpoons or something.” The conman doesn’t know this, but Captain Shaw grumbles quietly at that little jab made towards him he’s still upset about what has happened earlier.</p><p>“Well, we spent all day trying to find a "legendary" dinosaur.”, Dipper explains.</p><p>“But we realized”, Mabel follows up. “The only dinosaur we wanna hang out with is right here.”</p><p>“Save your sympathy!”, Stan scoffs “I've been having a great time withoutcha'! Makin' friends, talkin' to my reflection-- I had a run-in with the lake police!” He shows them his ankle brace. “Guess I gotta wear this ankle bracelet now, so that'll be fun.</p><p>“So... I guess there isn't room in that boat for three more?”, Dipper asks with a voice of regret.</p><p>The grunkle glares at Dipper and Mabel for a moment before they put on their hats, making his face soften “You knuckleheads ever seen me thread a hook with my eyes closed?”, he asks them with a grin.</p><p>“Five bucks says you can't do it!”, Dipper dares him.</p><p>The conman laughs. “You're on!”</p><p>“Five more bucks says you can't do it with your eyes closed, plus me singing at the top of my lungs!”</p><p>“I like those odds!” , Stan grins at the challenge. The twins and Soos climb down off Shaw's boat and onto the Stan-O-War. The captain looks at the group and it reminds of his family. With his grandchildren. With that, the captain waves goodbye before heading back to shore. Afterwards, the Pines and Soos enjoy themselves as the sunsets perfectly in the sky.</p><p>“All right, everybody get together.”, Dipper speaks, holding the camera up. “Say fishing!”</p><p>“Fishing!”, everyone smiles as Dipper takes the picture.</p><p>Subsequently, the gang shares more fun moments from Mabel covering Stan's eyes while he peeks and tries to thread a hook, to Stan reading jokes while everyone laughs at the cheesy one-liners, to Dipper holding his first fish, to Stan and Mabel stealing fish from another family (which, unfortunately, makes the group drive away from the lake police. All in all, it’s the family bonding day that Stan wanted and to Dipper and Mabel, it may not have been the exciting monster hunt they experienced but it’s a lot more fun and wholesome spending time with their grunkle than they initially thought.</p><p>But one question still remains.</p><p>As the group head back to the shore, Mabel thinks about something that she forgot about earlier. “So, what do you think happened to that egg?”, Mabel asks</p><p>“Who knows? Maybe it’s eaten or at the bottom of the lake.”, Dipper suggests, not really sure what happened to the monster egg he found. Hee saw it go deep into the bottom of the lake. As they the Stan-O-War heads closer to shore, a camera is seen sinking deeper underwater. The clear waters turn darker as it continues to sink until it ends up into the jaws of a lake monster that is sitting in a nest. A nest that has a familiar looking egg in it.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Sorry it took so long guys. I hope you guys enjoyed it and give me some review, critiques, or anything in between. This one was a little hard for me because I wanted this to feel authentic. I had to rewrite this chapter at least 3 times in a row during the prewriting stage until I found what I believed would be a good balance between the “”The Kraken” and “The Legend of The Gobblewonker” episodes but hopefully, I won’t have this struggle for the next two chapters. </p><p>Also, I set up a tumblr page for Omni Falls, if you guys have questions for me, feel free to send them to the inbox. Also there’s another thing I also do on there: it’s called The Trix Files, basically any alien you see in the chapter will have a post on the species and some of the author’s notes on them, check it out if you want to.</p><p>Well, that was a lot of plug-ins. But I digress.</p><p>Anyway,<br/>See ya next time!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Headhunters</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hey, guys. Thanks for your patience and thanks for still being here and sorry for making you wait for so long. If you’re reading this now, just know that chapter 4 is on the way. But I also have other news, I’m going to work on another fanfiction in the form of an OTP fanfiction. I’ll tell you more at the end of the chapter but right now, enjoy.</p><p>Also, I don’t own Gravity Falls or Ben 10. They belong to their creators and corporate daddies.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It’s been rather quiet at the Mystery Shack today. That doesn’t seem much of a problem for Dipper and Mabel, who were in the living room watching a show on television called Duck-tective. While watching the television program, Mabel knits a new sweater and Dipper eats popcorn from a bowl. She reaches for some popcorn, only for him to slap her hand away.</p><p>“I'm afraid your services won't be required here, sir.”, the constable taunts, with a condescending smile on his face. “My men have examined the evidence, and this is obviously an accident.”</p><p>“An accident, constable?”, Duck-tective quacks, his webbed feet paddling across the crime scene. “Or is it...Murder?”</p><p>“What?!”, the constable yells as the logo of the titular character comes on the screen as the commercials starts.</p><p>“That duck is a genius!”, Mabel gasps as she drops her sweater.</p><p>“Eh, it's easier to find clues when you're that close to the ground.”, Dipper shrugs.</p><p>Mabel puts her hand on her hip, skeptical. “Dipper, are you saying you could outwit Duck-tective?”</p><p>“Mabel, I have very keen powers of observation.”, Dipper explains, sitting up. “For example, just by smelling your breath, I can tell that you have been eating….” He sniffs the air, looking confused. “..an entire tube of toothpaste?”</p><p>“It was so sparkly...”, Mabel pouts, her mouth covered in toothpaste.</p><p>Soos arrives, running end with a look of excitement. “Hey, dudes, you'll never guess what I found!”</p><p>“Buried treasure!”, the twins say simultaneously before looking at each other, laughing.</p><p>“C’mon, follow me.”, Soos tells them, leading them to a mysterious door that’s been cut off. “So, I was cleaning up, when I found this secret door, hidden behind the wallpaper. It's crazy bonkers creepy! ” He unlocks the door and shows them what’s inside. They look around and see a collection of wax figures. But not any wax; these wax statues are historical figures, from Robin Hood to Shakespeare to Coolio.</p><p>Dipper shines his flashlight on the statues. “ Whoa. It's a secret wax museum.”</p><p>“They're so life-like.”, Mabel notes as she pokes the wax sculpture of Sherlock Holmes.</p><p>“Except for that one.”, Dipper critiques with his flashlight shining on a wax figure of Stan. Except it moves.</p><p>“Hello!”, Stan greets, making the twins scream and Soos. “It's just me, your Grunkle Stan!” His response doesn’t make it better because they still run out of the storage room, screaming their heads off.</p><hr/><p>After regathering the Twins and Soos back into the room, Stan introduces his prize collection of wax figures, “Behold the Gravity Falls Wax Museum! It was one of our most popular attractions... before I forgot all about it”, he admits before showing off the individual statues. “I got 'em all! Genghis Khan, Sherlock Holmes….”, he pauses to see a statue of Larry King. “some kind of, I don't know, goblin man?”</p><p>Dipper shudders. “Is anyone else getting the creeps here?”</p><p>“And now for my personal favorite: Wax Abraham Lincoln, right over--”, he stops his sentence to see said statue melted in the summer sunlight.“Oh! Oh no! Come on, who left the blinds open? Wax John Wilkes Booth, I'm looking in your direction!” He bends down and puts his finger in wax, huffing in annoyance. "How do you fix a wax figure?”</p><p>"Cheer up, Grunkle Stan.", Mabel livens up her grunkle. "Where's that smile?" Stan grunts.</p><p>"Beep, bop, boop!", she cheerfully pokes Stan in the face, only to poke him in the eye. "Ow."</p><p>"Don't worry, Grunkle Stan.", the young Pine smiles. "I'll make you a new wax figure from all this old wax!"</p><p>“You really think you can make one of these puppies?”, Stan rises up.</p><p>“Absolutely, Grunkle Stan! I'm an arts and crafts master. Why do you think I always have this glue gun stuck to my arm?”, she holds up her arm, which has a glue gun glued to it and tries to shake it off. “Eugh, eugh!”</p><p>“Huh, I like your gumption, kid!”, Stan acknowledges with a grin</p><p>“I don't know what that word means, but thank you!”, Mabel gives one of her own.</p><hr/><p>Dipper’s been deeply invested into his journal. He just found a page talking about Methanosians, plant-like species that are able to emit flames. It’s very interesting to think about: how are they able to achieve this? Are they able to move so fast that they ignite the air or is it chemically triggered? Perhaps the chemical is-</p><p>“Dipper!”, Mabel drops down in front of his startled brother, who almost drops his journal before putting back in his jacket.</p><p>“What do you think of my wax figure idea?”, she shows Dipper a drawing that she sketched in her sketch-book. “She's part fairy princess, and part horse fairy princess!”</p><p>“Maybe you should carve something from real life.”, Dipper suggests, feeling creeped out by her picture.</p><p>“How about a waffle with big arms?!”, Mabel turns another page, showing the aforementioned waffle.</p><p>“Okay... Or, you know, maybe, something else.”, Dipper clarifies, hoping to get his point across. “Like someone in your family.”</p><p>“Kids, have you seen my pants?”, Grunkle Stan asks as he poses on a briefcase, trying to find his piece of clothing. This makes Mabel gasps as a surge of inspiration courses into her mind. She turns around, her eyes becoming big as she looks upwards.</p><p>“Oh, muse. You work in mysterious ways.”, she beams with excitement.</p><p>“Why's your sister talking to the ceiling?”, Stan asks Dipper, clearly unaware of the young artist’s creative breakthrough. The next couple hours revolve around Mabel crafting the new wax figure. She works thoroughly on making the statue’s structure, working on the small details of her grunkle, and painting the right colors. It is rigorous and time-consuming but she manages to get halfway done. She moves back to admire her work with Dipper and Soos next to her. “I think... it needs more glitter.”, she muses.</p><p>“Agreed.”, Soos nods, handing the young Pine a bucket of glitter. She tosses the entire bucket onto the statue. “Perfect!”, Mabel exclaims in joy.</p><p>Stan walks in with his pants on but missing his shoes. “Ok, I found my pants but now I'm missing my--” He stops and notices Wax Stan. “Ahhh!” He falls over and crawls away in shock by witnessing the wax’s lifelike features.</p><p>“What do you think?”, she asks, anxiously.</p><p>“I think... the Wax Museum's back in business!”</p><hr/><p>A bustling crowd has gathered at the Mystery Shack, they arrive in droves to see the latest attraction. What the attraction was, they don’t know but it must be worth the price of admission they paid to be here.</p><p>“I can't believe this many people showed up.”, Dipper comments as he watches the crowds arriving at the event.</p><p>“Yeah, I bet your uncle bribed them”, Wendy replies with a sarcastic grin.</p><p>“He bribed me.”, he smiles, showing the 5 dollar bill that his Grunkle gave him in exchange for working in the ticket stand. She pulled out her own 5 dollar bill that conman bribed her with, making them both snicker. On stage, Stan walks on stage towards the podium. He taps on the microphone, ignoring the ear-piercing feedback it emits from the crowd.</p><p>“You all know me, folks!”, Stan smiles, attempting and failing to charm the crowd. “Town darling, ‘Mr. Mystery.’ Please, ladies, control yourselves!” This garners no response from the women in the crowd. “As you know, I always bring the people of this fair town novelties and befuddlements, the likes of which the world has never known. But enough about me.”, Stan continues, getting to the point of the congregation. “Behold….me!” He removes the tarp, revealing the wax duplicate to the whole crowd. This receives a lukewarm welcome with two people clapping and another coughing. “And now a word from our own Mabelangelo!”, the conman introduces Mabel who takes the microphone from him before walking in front of the crowd.</p><p>“Thank you for coming!”, she greets the crowd. “I made this sculpture with my own two hands!” She throws up her arms into the air for a brief moment. “It's covered in my blood, sweat, tears, and other fluids!” The implication makes the audience cringe in disgust.</p><p>“Yeah.”, she laughs it off. “I will now take questions! You there!” She points her hand to Old Man McGucket.</p><p>“Old Man McGucket, local kook.”, he introduces himself before asking. “Are the wax figures alive? And follow-up question, can I survive the wax-man uprising?”</p><p>“Um...Yes!”, she answers with a confused look on her face before pointing to a staunch man holding a turkey baster in his left hand instead of a microphone. “Next question!”</p><p>“Toby Determined, Gravity Falls Gossiper.”, he begins. “Do you really think this constitutes a wonder of the world?”</p><p>“Your microphone's a turkey baster, Toby.”, Stan shoots down his question.</p><p>“It certainly is…”, he retracts with a look of self-pity.</p><p>“Next question!”</p><p>“Shandra Jimenez, a real reporter.”, the female reporter says, holding a real microphone and a camera crew. “Your flyers promised free pizza with admission to this event. Is this true?” She holds up the said flyer in front him. This, in tow, makes the crowd erupt in indignation over the fact that there wasn’t any pizza around. Stan looks at the crowd with a nervous frown as they demand for pizza and glare at the conman.</p><p>“That was a typo.”, he gives a short answer, not really explaining anything. “Good night, everyone!” He drops a smoke bomb running off the stage before taking the admission cash box before anyone would notice. To say the crowd is upset would be an understatement, they are furious that they were swindled by the “Man of Mystery” as they all leave the Shack. No significant damage is caused save for the decorative pole that’s punched by Manly Dan.</p><p>Mabel leans on the admission table that Dipper and Wendy are sitting with a smile on her face. “I think that went well.”</p><hr/><p>“Hot pumpkin pie! Look at all this cash!” Stan smiles in pride as he counts the money in the evening. “And I owe it all to one person, this guy!” He points to his wax replica of himself to which Mabel punches her grunkle in the arm playfully.</p><p>“Yeah, you too, ya little gremlin.”, he laughs, giving her niece a noogie. “Now you kids wash up. We got another long day of racking cash tomorrow.” He starts pushing the twins out the living room. They head upstairs, smiling, as they run upstairs to brush their teeth and go to bed. Once they had gone upstairs, Stan decides to hang with his wax counterpart to watch Ducktective.</p><p>“Well, duck-tective, it seems you've really quacked the case.”, the constable jokes.</p><p>“Don't patronize me.”, Duck-tective quacks, clearly annoyed by the tasteless joke.</p><p>“Stupid duck!”, Stan can't help but laugh as the show goes to commercial. “Well, I'm gonna use the john. You need anything?” His wax counterpart’s grin doesn’t waver, but that doesn’t stop him from laughing. “I love this guy! Don't you go nowhere.”</p><p>He leaves to go to the bathroom for a few minutes. That’s all the time that’s needed for something sinister to occur. Like a thief in the night, the figure appears out of nowhere but their intention remains obvious and so, the terrible act is committed in such swift fashion that it’s almost like it never happened. The figure disappears as they hear the footsteps of Stan coming back into the den, leaving no trace.</p><p>When he comes back into the living room, Stan's face turns into horror as he screams as his eyes lay upon a devastating sight. “No!... No!... Noooooo!” His yells cause the twins to run downstairs to their grunkle on his knees with his hands holding his horrified face.</p><p>“Wax Stan! He's been...murdered!”, Stan points to the headless body of his wax counterpart on the floor. This shocking revelation makes Mabel faint with a gasp with Dipper catching her. While he isn't as emotionally torn about it like his sister and grunkle are about this, it’s still a scary sight to behold.</p><hr/><p>An hour passed by, the cops arrived when Stan called. The living room is turned into a crime scene with Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland questioning Stan about what transpired. “So, I got up to use the john, right?”, he explains, even though he’s still shaken by seeing his wax counterpart beheaded. “And when I come back, blammo! He's headless!”</p><p>“My expert handcrafting... besmirched.”, Mabel cries dejectedly as she looks at her masterpiece beheaded.“Besmirched!” Dipper puts a comforting hand on his sister’s shoulder as he looks at the wax figure. The way the head is cleaved indicates that it wasn’t an accident. But one question remains in his mind. Who would do something like this?</p><p>“Look, we'd love to help you folks, but let's face the facts.”, Sheriff Blubs confesses after Durland finished taking notes on the murder. “This case is unsolvable.” Everyone, besides the cops, to gasp incredulously. This makes Grunkle Stan very furious</p><p>“You take that back, Sheriff Blubs!”, Stan growls.</p><p>“You're kidding, right? There must be evidence, motives. Anything.”, Dipper insists, there must be something that the police officers are missing to figure out the murder.“You know, I could help if you want.”</p><p>“He's really good. He figured out who was eating our tin cans!”, Mabel vouches for her brother.</p><p>“All signs pointed to the goat.”, Dipper proudly declares.</p><p>“Yeah, yeah! Let the boy help.”, Stan adds on. “He's got a little brain up in his head.”</p><p>“Oooh! Would you look at what we got here!”, Sheriff Blubs taunts the young Pines, making him annoyed by the patronizing of the officers. “City boy thinks he's gonna solve a mystery with his fancy computer phone!”</p><p>“City boooy! City booooy!”, Durland eggs on with his partner. Blubbs just laughs on before smiling at the young Pine, condescendingly. “You are adorable.”</p><p>“Adorable?”, Dipper pouts, aggravated by the patronizing cops, who just keep on laughing at him.</p><p>“Look, P.J.'s.”, Blubs begins, grinning at the aggravated Pine. “How about you leave the investigation to the grown-ups, okay?” Just as he said that, his walkie-talkie sounding off. Attention, all units. Steve is about to fit an entire cantaloupe in his mouth. Repeat, an entire cantaloupe!</p><p>“It's a 23-16!”, Durland squeals in excitement.</p><p>“Let's move!” Blubs proclaims as both officers run off, laughing as they get to their car in quick fashion.</p><p>“That's it!”, Dipper declares, determined to prove those officers wrong. “Mabel, you and I are going to find the jerk who did this, and get back that head. Then we'll see who's adorable.”</p><p>“Aww, you sneeze like a kitten!”, Mabel gushes with a beaming grin, to which he glares at her for making him sound cute. It’s going to be a long process for him to get through in order for him to be taken seriously.</p><hr/><p>The morning arrives and the Pine Twins begin their investigation. Dipper suggests finding clues in the last spot where the crime occured, which is the living room, where the wax statue still lays on the floor since last night. Mabel wraps the police tape, which is basically toilet paper with “Do Not Pass” in marker, as Dipper shoots a picture at the “corpse”.</p><p>“Wax Stan has lost his head”, Dipper explains in a tone reminiscent of a detective. “And it's up to us to find it.” He looks at the bulletin board with pictures of suspects. “There were a lot of unhappy customers at the unveiling and the murderer could be anyone of them.”</p><p>“Yeah! Even us!”, Mabel adds on.</p><p>“In this town, anything is possible.”, Dipper continues as he looks at the journal for some clues. “Ghosts, zombies, it could be months before we find our first clue”.</p><p>“Hey, look! A clue.” Dipper stops what he’s doing and looks at where Mabel’s pointing at. He walks to where she is and finds the first clue: shoeprints in the shag carpet.</p><p>Mabel looks at the clue closely and notices something about them. “That's weird. They've got a hole in them.”</p><p>“And they're leading to…”, Dipper stars before he and Mabel follow the trail to see their second clue: an ax behind the reclining chair. The twins look shocked at what they find. “The murder weapon!” He picks up the heavy axe and examines it.</p><p>“Who would know about this?”, Dipper thinks aloud.</p><p>“Maybe...”, Mabel thinks for a moment before getting a lightbulb. “Maybe we should ask Soos about this.”</p><p>Dippers hums before nodding his head.</p><p>They head to the gift shop to see Soos doing his usual tasks around the shack. After a few minutes of greeting the handyman, the Pine Twins explain what they’ve been doing and give him the murder weapon to inspect it.</p><p>“So, what do you think?”, Dipper asks, hoping Soos can give some additional clues. He keeps staring at the ax with the same analytical expression he had beforehand.</p><p>“In my opinion, this is an ax.” Soos concludes, stating the obvious.</p><p>“And is there anything else?”, Dipper asks, hoping to get an answer from the handyman. “Something weird? Something that can help us?”</p><p>“Uh...”, Soos thinks for a moment. “It’s sharp?” Dipper only sighs in minor annoyance.</p><p>“Wait a minute.”, Mabel snaps her fingers. “The lumberjack!”</p><p>Dipper realizes for a second. “Yeah, that’s right. He was furious when he didn't get that free pizza.”</p><p>“Furious enough, for murder!”, Mabel adds on dramatically.</p><p>“Oh, you mean Manly Dan?”, Soos clarifies the lumberjack’s identity. “Yeah, he hangs out at this crazy intense biker joint downtown.”</p><p>“Then that's where we're going.”, Mabel declares with a fist pump.</p><p>“Dude, this is awesome.”, Soos chuckles, sharing some of Mabel’s excitement. “You two are like: The Mystery Twins!”</p><p>Dipper frowns at the name the handyman offered. “Don't call us that.”</p><p>After getting the information they needed, the Pine Twins walk outside about to the downtown area to where the biker joint. Before they reach it, Dipper and Mabel see their grunkle pulling a coffin out the trunk of his car. “Hey, give me a hand with this coffin, will ya?”, Stan asks. “I'm doin' a memorial service for wax Stan. Something small, but classy.”</p><p>“Sorry, Grunkle Stan.”, Dipper apologizes. “But we have got a big break in the case!”</p><p>“Break in the case!”, Mabel echoes.</p><p>“We're heading to the town right now to interrogate the murderer.”</p><p>“And we have an axe!”, Mabel shows off the axe, waving it a bit with a gaudy smile.</p><p>“Hm, seems like the kind of thing that responsible parents wouldn't want you to do…”, Stan thinks for a moment. “Good thing I'm an uncle. Avenge me kids! AVENGE ME!!”</p><hr/><p>Skull Fracture is the only biker bar of Gravity Falls, fitting for the most masculine of individuals to hangout. The outer appearance is enough for the normal person to steer clear from, especially with the large bouncer at the front. It’s why Dipper and Mabel are peering around the corner of the tavern, measuring the difficulty of their current situation.</p><p>“This is the place.” Dipper examines, still feeling a bit nervous on getting caught. He turns his head to Mabel. “Got the fake IDs?” She gives him an ID card for him, but he’s not sure that this would work because the card looks hooky at best. It’s made by unlamented cardstock along with crayons and glitter.</p><p>“Is this the best you can make, Mabel?”, he asks, still looking at the ID with uncertainty.</p><p>“C’mon, Dipper.”, Mabel pouts. “It’s gonna work.”</p><p>“Here goes nothing.”, the young Pine sighs, bracing himself for the worst as they both head to the front of the tavern's entrance, where the bouncer is standing.</p><p>“We're here to interrogate Manly Dan, the lumber jack for the murder of wax Stan.”, Mabel speaks with a level of professionalism that it’s a bit jarring. “I believe our ID’s can provide proof for you, good sir.” They present their ID’s to the bouncer who stares at them, before shrugging.</p><p>“Works for me.”, he responds stoically as he opens the door, though Dipper is a little surprised that it worked. As they head inside, they understand why this tavern is called Skull Fracture. Men are either throwing fists at each other, arguing with each other, smoking, or sitting at the bar drinking some beer. Dipper and Mabel walk inside, looking around before motioning for his sister to follow him.</p><p>Mabel almost trips over an unconscious body and steps over it. She stops at a moment to stare at the body. “He's resting.”, she reassures to herself before catching up with her brother, who looks around and finds Manly Dan at the arm wrestling machine.</p><p>“Alright, let's just try to blend in, ok?”, Dipper asks as he heads towards the lumberjack. “I’m going to interrogate the suspect.”</p><p>Mabel gives him a thumbs-up before climbing onto a chair and talks to one of the patrons. “Hey there, fellow restaurant patron!”, she greets the gritty man with a cheery tone before patting him on the arm, ignoring his growl of aggravation. Dipper, meanwhile, passes through the patrons before reaching Manly Dan.</p><p>“Manly Dan, just the guy I wanted to see.”, Dipper speaks with nonchalance. “Where were you last night?”</p><p>“Punchin' the clock.”, Manly Dan grunts, holding on to the mechanical arm with veins popping.</p><p>“Oh, so you were at work?”</p><p>“No, I was punchin' that clock!”, Manly Dan growls as he points to a broken clock outside, which appears broken and at an odd angle.</p><p>“10 o'clock, the time of the murder.”, Dipper hums, looking at the time on the broken clock, which is at 10, in consternation.“So, I guess you've never seen this before?” He pulls out the axe from his bag and shows it to the lumberjack.</p><p>“Listen, little girl!” Manly Dan starts.</p><p>“Hey, actually I'm a--”</p><p>“I wouldn't pick my teeth with that ax. It's left-handed! I only use my right hand, the MANLY HAND!!”, Manly Dan rips the machine's arm off and beats the machine with it.</p><p>Dipper looks at the axe. “Left-handed.” He decides to go and catch his sister before they both head outside to assess what he learned.</p><p>“It's a left-handed ax.” Dipper confirms as he shows Mabel a list of possible suspects from Stan’s unveiling. “These are all our suspects. Manly Dan is right handed, that means all we have to do is find our left-handed suspect and we've got our killer.”</p><p>“Oh man, we are on fire today!” Mabel exclaims with a lot of zeal.</p><p>“That we are.”, he responds, feeling some of her excited energy. “Now let's find that murderer.” He shares Mabel’s look of confidence as they share a fist bump. They start out looking around town to find their ideal suspects: they first start at the junkyard, where they see Old Man McGucket wrestling with a baby alligator. Mabel waves and the old kook waves back with his right hand with the baby gator biting on it. Afterward, Dipper, wearing a fake mustache, delivers a package to Pizza Guy's house. Pizza Man signs Dipper's form and gets excited, only for Dipper to take the package and leave. On the other side of the road, Mabel notices the angry lady and whistles to get her attention before throwing a baseball at her. She catches it with her right hand and crushes it. Later on, the twins find another suspect who was at the unveiling. They knock on his door, only for him to come out with both hands in casts. So far most the people on the list were all right-handed. It seems like they aren’t close at all.</p><p>Except for one suspect.</p><p>Dipper gasps as looks for the final suspect on the list. “Mabel, there's only one person left on this list.”</p><p>“Of course, it all adds up!”, Mabel realizes as well.</p><hr/><p>It's nightfall as the cops and the Pine Twins head to the front door of Gravity Falls Gossiper. It took some convincing but Dipper were able to convince them that their number one suspect was responsible for the murder.</p><p>"You kids better be right about this or you'll never get the end of it.", Blubs warns them, hoping to be right so he could tease the city boy.</p><p>“The evidence is irrefutable, officers.”, Dipper responds.</p><p>“It's so irrefutable.” Mabel adds, waving her hand.</p><p>“I'm gonna get to use my match stick!”, Durland giggles in excitement as he waves his batton around.</p><p>“You ready? You ready little fella?”, Blubs askes, sharing his partner’s zealous energy as they hit each other playfully with batons, barely able to contain themselves.</p><p>“On 3!”, Dipper starts, before counting. “1, 2…”</p><p>Before he can finish, the officers break down the door, barging in with a unified shout with the Pine Twins behind them. “Nobody move!”, Blubs shouts with authority. “This is a raid!”</p><p>As his office gets invaded, Toby slips and falls down, yelling in surprise. “What is this? Some kind of raid?”, he asks needlessly.</p><p>“Toby Determined, you're under arrest for the murder of the wax body of Grunkle Stan.”, Dipper declares confidently.</p><p>“You have the right to remain impressed with our awesome detective work.”, Mabel adds on, smugly grinning as she high fives Dipper.</p><p>“Gobbling goose feathers! I don't understand!”, Toby exclaims, flustered by what’s going on.</p><p>“Then allow me to explain.”, Dipper starts with a confident smile on his face as Mabel holds a newspaper with a picture of Wax Stan's head. “You were hoping that Grunkle Stan's new attraction would be the story that saved your failing newspaper. But when the show was a flop, you decided to go out and make your own headline. But you were sloppy, and all the clues pointed to a shabby shoed reporter who was caught left-handed.”</p><p>“Toby Determined, you're yesterday's news.”, Mabel concludes as she crumples up the newspaper.</p><p>Toby Boy, your little knees must be sore…”, the journalist starts, frowning. “From jumping to conclusions.” He finishes his proud remark before doing a little dance at the kids detective work. “I had nothing to do with that murder.”</p><p>“HA! I knew it-wait, come again?”, Dipper exclaims before realizing what he just said. “Nothing? D-did you just say nothing?” He’s genuinely confused about what Toby just said. How could he not be the suspect when all of the evidence points to him?</p><p>“Huh? What? Could you repeat that?”, Mabel asks, sharing her brother’s confusion.</p><p>“Then where were you at the night of the break-in?”, Blubs asks, wanting to know the truth as well as Deputy Durland.</p><p>“Ehh…”, Toby tugs on his shirt collar nervously before inserting a tape into a TV. It opens with him looking around, hoping no would notice what he’s doing before taking a cardboard cutout of Shandra Jimenez out of his closet. “Finally, we can be alone, cardboard cutout of TV news reporter Shandra Jimenez!”, he swoons affectionately before he kisses it, making everyone cringe in disgust from what they’re witnessing.</p><p>“Welp, timestamp confirms it.”, Blubs concludes. “Toby, you're off the hook. You freak of nature.”</p><p>“Hooray!”, Toby cheers, even though the tape is still playing.</p><p>“But, but it has to be him!”, Dipper argues, hoping that his hard work doesn’t end in failure.“Check the ax for fingerprints!”</p><p>The cops do so, dusting the weapon for any fingerprints, except there isn’t any on it. “Sorry, kid”, Sheriff Blubs shook his head. “No prints at all.”</p><p>“No prints?”, Dipper is confused by what he’s heard. There’s no prints on the ax?</p><p>Durland “Hey I got a headline for you: city kids waste everyone's time.”, taunts making the adults laugh, making Dipper and Mabel feel more embarrassed than they already are. They put so much effort into finding the culprit and from what they gathered, it seemed like the evidence was pointing to Toby Determined. But, they were wrong. It feels like the case itself is unsolvable.</p><hr/><p>Later on today, Grunkle Stan arranges a funeral for his wax counterpart in the parlor. He is standing on a stage with a bunch of chairs set up with Dipper, Mabel, Soos, and the wax figures as the audience.</p><p>“Kids, Soos, lifeless wax figures, thank you all for coming.”, Stan thanks, solemnly before continuing. “Some people might say it's wrong for a man to love a wax replica of himself.”</p><p>“They're wrong!”, Soos exclaims as he stands up.</p><p>“Easy Soos.”, Stan responds, he understands the handyman’s sentiments. He looks at his headless wax replica, feeling a sob coming up as he continues. “Wax Stan, I hope you're picking pockets in wax heaven.” The conman sniffles, wiping his eye. “I'm sorry, I got glitter in my eye!” He runs out, not able to finish the eulogy without feeling grief.</p><p>“Ohhhhh duuuude…”, Soos cries out as he runs after his, trying to console him. There’s nothing but silence as it’s just the Pine Twins and the wax figures left in attendance. Dipper and Mabel look solemnly at the casket the headless Wax Stan is in, reminding them of their failure at finding the murderer. This realization makes Dipper slump into his seat, sighing.</p><p>“Those cops are right about me. About us.”, Dipper mutters in disappointment and defeat.</p><p>“But Dipper, we've come so far, we can't give up now.”, Mabel encourages as she gives her brother a smile.</p><p>“Mabel, we’ve considered everything: the weapon, the motive, the clues.”, he insists as he stands up and walks to the coffin. “We looked at every perspective and there was nothing but dead ends.” When the case first started, Dipper thought he and Mabel could solve this easily. They had the clues, the potential candidates for the murderer, and the solid idea for a motive of the murder. But now, he’s not so sure anymore and can’t reach any conclusion. There are too many loose ends to this mystery.</p><p>That is until he notices something, something he didn’t see during their investigation. “That’s weird”, Dipper notes, as he stares at the wax rendition’s shoes. “Wax Stan's shoe has a hole in it.”</p><p>“Well, yeah. All the wax guys have that.”, Mabel answers, following her brother to the casket with the ax in her hand. “It's where the pole thingy attaches to their stand dealy.”</p><p>“Wait a minute, what has a hole on its shoe and no fingerprints?”, Dipper mutters to himself. He slowly realizes something. Despite the fact that his previous suspect had a hole in his shoe along with being left-handed. But there’s an additional piece of evidence that’s to be considered: There’s no fingerprints. And there's someone or, something, that has none.</p><p>“Uh...Dipper”, Mabel asks, confused by her brother’s silence.</p><p>“Mabel.”, Dipper starts as he looks at his sister. “The murderers are--”</p><p>“Standing right behind you?”</p><p>The Pine Twins gasp in surprise as they turn around and see something that defies logic: all the wax figures rise up, either scowling with hatred or smiling in malicious intent as they creep closer towards the stunned children until they’re blocked off from any escape. The lineup of wax figures include Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe, Genghis Khan, Larry King, Coolio (?), and Sherlock Holmes, who is holding up the decapitated head of Wax Stan. A wax replica of Lizzie Borden takes the ax from a terrified mabel before Wax Sherlock begins.</p><p>“Congratulations, my two amateur sleuths”, he patronizes as he tosses Wax Stan’s head up and down like a ball. “You've discovered our little secret.” He turns towards his wax comrades, who sneer at the Pine Twins. “Applaud, everyone. Applaud sarcastically.”</p><p>The wax figures collectively do so, mocking the children with sneers etched onto their faces, but Sherlock admonishes him. “Uh, no, that sounds too sincere. Slow clap, please.” The figures slow down their clapping so it may appear prominently more sarcastic. “There we go. Nice and condescending.”</p><p>“H-how is this possible?”, Dipper asks, baffled by what’s going on. “You're made of wax.”</p><p>“Are you magic”, Mabel gasp, curiously.</p><p>“Are we magic?” Wax Sherlock laughs with a sneer. “She wants to know if we're magic!” He keeps chuckling before slamming his fist down on the casket, jolting Dipper and Mabel. “We're CURSED!”</p><p>“CURSED!”, the wax figures repeat.</p><p>“Cursed to come to life whenever the moon is waxing.”, Wax Sherlock explains, walking near the fireplace.“Your uncle bought us many years ago at a garage sale.”</p><p>“A haunted garage sale, son!”, Wax Coolio adds.</p><p>“Quite.”, Wax Sherlock agrees before continuing. “And so, the Mystery Shack Wax Collection was born. By day, we would be the playthings of man.”</p><p>“But when your uncle went to sleep, we would rule the night.”, Wax Coolio interjects again.</p><p>“It was a charmed life for us cursed beings…”, Wax Sherlock speaks, with a tone of reminiscent before turning cold. “That is, until your uncle closed up shop. We've been waiting ten years to get our revenge on Stan for locking us away. But we got the wrong guy.”</p><p>“So you were going to kill Grunkle Stan for real”, Dipper asks, completely shocked by what he’s heard.</p><p>“You were right, Dipper.”, Mabel says. “Wax figures are creepy.”</p><p>“Enough!”, Wax Sherlock silences them. “Now that you know our secret, you must die.” Wax Sherlock, along with the rest of the wax figures, rolls his eyes to the back of his head. The wax figures growl intimidatingly as they get closer to the Pine Twins.</p><p>Mabel looks at her brother, who activates the Omnitrix. Dipper tries to select the right alien as the wax figures get close while Mabel attempts to distract them by throwing items from the small refreshment table. It does little to no effect before she throws a pot of coffee at the face of Wax Genghis Khan, who screams in pain.</p><p>“That’s it. We can melt them with hot, melty things”, Mabel realizes.</p><p>“Hot, melty things”, Dipper repeats before an idea pops up into his head. “That’s it!” He turns the dial to get his designated alien. In a flash of emerald light, stunning Mabel and the wax statues, Dipper’s body begins to morph: He feels his body developing chlorophyll as his feet become roots, his oxygen molecules shift to methane, easy for ignition. His shoulders develop red flowers.</p><p>Dipper becomes a Methonisian: a humanoid, plant-like alien that has an overall green and black colored body, mostly with a red flame-patterned head and root-like feet, seemingly holding black rocks. His eyes are oval-shaped with points at each end with pupils copying the shape but are smaller. Also, his shoulders and head have red petals and his elbows and legs have green frills sticking out. This alien is taller than an average human and has a distinct rotten stench that worsens with heat.</p><p>“Swampfire!”, the altered Pine shouts. Mabel looks at her brother in awe, he finds a new transformation that looks very cool but she notices something when she smells him.</p><p>“Ugh. Dipper you stink.”, Mabel holds her nose in disgust.</p><p>“That’s because my body is emitting methane fumes.”, Swapfire answers.</p><p>“Just take a shower when this is over.”, she begs as she grabs two decorative candles.</p><p>“The stink would probably go away when I transform back but okay.”, he answers, igniting his fists which causes the wax figures to step back even further. “Any one of you moves and we'll melt you!”</p><p>“With some fire and decorative candles!”, Mabel declares.</p><p>“Do you really think you could beat us with candles and by becoming a giant flaming weed?”, Wax Sherlock asks, his tone incredulous at the idea of these kids defeating despite them having the advantage.</p><p>“I mean….I can make flames outta my hands and she's got candles. So...”, Swampfire shrugs.</p><p>“Yeah, it’s kind off a no-brainer.”, Mabel points out.</p><p>“So be it.”, Wax Sherlock answers before shouting. “ATTACK!” The wax figures and the Pine Twins charge, ready for battle.</p><p>Wax Lizzie Borden swings her ax at Mabel, but accidentally decapitates Wax Robin Hood. Mabel walks around her, but Wax Shakespeare sneaks up behind her. Mabel cuts off his hands with both candles, and he runs away in cowardice. Wax Shakespeare's hands, however, move and begin strangling Mabel. She grabs a door and repeatedly smashes it on its fingers.</p><p>A couple of wax figures tackle Swampfire to the ground before dogpiling him, but since he has the strength advantage, he’s able to get them off of him through powering out, making the wax figures fly across the room in different directions. After doing that, he avoids being grabbed from behind by Wax Larry King before delivering a fiery chop that decapitates his head. “Interview this, Larry King!”</p><p>“My neck! My beautiful neck!”, Wax Larry King cries out, running away.</p><p>Wax Groucho growls as he charges towards Swampfire, but the altered Pine is ready as he blasts the wax figure in his stomach with a massive fireball causing both halves to slowly slip off.</p><p>“Jokes on you, Groucho!”, Swampfire quips.</p><p>“I heard of an empty stomach but this is ridiculous.”, Wax twiddling his fingers a bit as the top half of his body slid off of the lower half. “Hey, why is there nothing in my hand?”</p><p>Swampfire turns around to see Wax Genghis Khan charging at him and simply sidesteps him, making the wax figure run into the fireplace.</p><p>“Ha, Genghis Khan! You fell harder than the... uh... ”, Swampfire declares before getting confused. “I don't know, uh, Jin Dynasty? Heh. Yeah. Alright. ”</p><p>Mabel swings around Wax Coolio's head while getting overwhelmed by wax figures.</p><p>“Dipper! Watch out!”, Mabel calls out to her transformed brother. He blasts Wax Richard Nixon out the room before turning around to Wax Sherlock Holmes behind him.</p><p>“Alright. Let’s get this taken care of.”, Wax Sherlock says, putting Wax Stan's head on the horn of a rhino on the wall, and grabs a sword hanging on it. He then swings the blade and it slices Swampfire’s off. The wax figure seems pleased before his eyes narrow in annoyance and confusion as the altered Pine grows another arm. Swampfire ignites his fists and starts swinging at Wax Sherlock, who in turn uses the sword defensively while delivering more hits to the alien. This continues until they reach the attic.</p><p>"Once your family is out of the way, we’ll rule the night once more!", Wax Sherlock declares, raising his sword planning to slice Swampfire’s head clean off.</p><p>I can't deliver a massive fire attack in this area, Swampfire thinks. The best course is….He quickly turns to see the window. There!</p><p>"Don’t count on it!", Swampfire retorts, kicking Wax Sherlock down the stairs before opening the window to get outside. He climbs up to the top sign of the Mystery Shack and waits near the edge to hear Wax Sherlock Holmes coming up to finish him off.</p><p>"You think you can outwit me, freak?!", Wax Sherlock asks in aggravation as the figure climbs up. "I’m Sherlock Bloody Holmes!" He looks ready to slice up the alien boy until he reaches the top sign. But he realizes his mistake as Swampfire holds both hands out to deliver an attack.</p><p>“Burn.”, Swampfire declares before blasting a stream of flames that seems to have melted the wax figure. He moves forward to the spot where Wax Sherlock was standing. He looks from his left and his right, hoping to find any evidence that he melted the wax figure. Honestly, where did he-</p><p>Out of nowhere, Wax Sherlock appears between the top and bottom sign to deliver a hard elbow strike to Swampfire’s face. This causes him to tumble on the other side of the roof, rolling on the surface and grabbing onto the edge of it to prevent himself from falling down. He looks down at the ground below before gulping, he knows that these aliens are tough but he still doesn't feel comfortable at the aspect of falling.</p><p>The sudden sound of scraping alerts the altered Pine to see Wax Sherlock Holmes, despite having one arm that’s mostly melted off, brandishing the sword with a hateful scowl on his face. He stops on top of the chimney and for additional cruelty, steps on Swampfire’s hands, eliciting a grunt of pain from him.</p><p>“Any last requests”, Wax Sherlock asks as he holds the sword, ready to finish the job of killing this freak.</p><p>Swampfire turns his head slightly to see the sky brightening up a bit, making him have a small grin of victory. “You got any sunscreen?”</p><p>“Sunscree-?”, Wax Sherlock looks confused before he realizes his hand is melting. “What?!” He gasps in horror at the sight of the warm, summer sun rising up.</p><p>“No.”, Wax Sherlock says placidly, despite his wax body melting in the heat.</p><p>“Yeah, it really wasn’t very sharp of you to let me lead you out here.”, Swampfire replies, confidently.</p><p>“Outsmarted by a child in short pants! No!”, Wax Sherlock exclaims in frustration and agony as the sun reaches even higher. “Fiddlesticks! Humbugs! Tiiter, total kerfuffle. Butter hallabaloo.” He continues cursing until he becomes a puddle with only his head holding some shape. Swampfire climbs up on the roof before sighing in relief. A certain ring from the Omnitrix emblem on his indicates that he’s going to turn back and in a flash of red light, Dipper becomes normal again.</p><p>“Case closed.”, Dipper declares in satisfaction, wiping the dust from his hands before he sneezes.</p><p>“You sneeze like a kitten!”, Wax Sherlock laughs, mockingly as his remains slip off the roof. “Those policemen were right, you're adorable! Adorable!” He declares his final word before falling down at the ground below in a splat.</p><p>“Ew.”, Dipper mutters in disgust.</p><hr/><p>Just as the battle on the roof is finished, so is Mabel’s in the parlor as she scoops all the remaining pieces of the wax figures with one more, Wax William Shakespeare’s living head.</p><p>“Though our group be left in twain, the men of wax shall rise again!”, Wax William declares though it reaches deaf ears as Mabel picks him up.</p><p>“Y’know any limericks?”, she asks curiously.</p><p>“Uh... there once was a dude from Kentucky…”, the wax figure attempts, weakly.</p><p>“Nope!”, Mabel concludes throwing his head into the fire before noticing her brother entering the parlor. “Dipper! You're okay! You solved the mystery after all.”</p><p>“I couldn't have done it without my sidekick.”, he says as he pulls up a chair and takes Wax Stan's head off the wall.</p><p>“No offense Dipper, but you're the sidekick.” Mabel informs him.</p><p>“What? Says who? Have people been saying that? Have you heard that?”, Dipper asks nervously before coming down.</p><p>“Eesh, which one of you broke wind-”, Stan comes into the parlor before screaming incredulously. “Hot Belgian Waffles!! What happened to my parlor?!” He sees the room cluttered with various wax parts on the floor.</p><p>“Your wax figures turned out to be evil, so we fought them to the death!”, Mabel answers, jovially.</p><p>“I decapitated Larry King.”, Dipper adds.</p><p>Stan stares at them for a minute before laughing at their ridiculous claim. “Ha ha! You kids and your imaginations!”</p><p>“On the bright side, though, look what we found.”, Dipper shows his grunkle’s wax replica’s head.</p><p>“My head! Ha ha! I missed this guy!”, Grunkle Stan beams happily. “You done good, kids! Alright, line up for some affectionate noogie-ing.” Dipper and Mabel try to protest but he just noogies them, all of them sharing a big laugh before a police car drives near the broken parlor window, Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland on the inside relaxing.</p><p>“Solved the case yet, boy?”, Sheriff Blubs asks, condescendingly. “ I'm so confident you're gonna say no, that I'm gonna take a long, slow sip from my cup of coffee.” He holds up his coffee and starts drinking really slowly to mock the Omnitrix-user.</p><p>“Actually, the answer is yes.”, Dipper answers, casually as he holds Wax Stan’s head. This causes Sheriff Blubs to choke on his coffee before spitting it in Durlands face, which leads to him screaming in pain and spitting the coffee back at Blubs’ face, making him scream in pain. This continues on until the drive away in pain from the scalding coffee before ending up crashing.</p><p>The Pines laugh at the spectacle, enjoying the catharsis of solving the case. “They got scalded.”, Stan quips, chuckling.</p><p>“So, did you get rid of all the wax figures?” Dipper asks.</p><p>“I am ninety-nine percent sure that I did!”, Mabel answers with a confident grin.</p><p>“Good enough for me!”, Dipper concludes.</p><p>Little does she know, Mabel missed one. A headless Wax Larry King chuckles before chasing off after a rat that steals his ear.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>4 months. 4 months of this. I hope I won’t have to take this long.</p><p>Sorry it took so long, guys. Hopefully, you'll enjoy it as the next chapter comes out. Also, keep a lookout for my OTP fanfic, "Of Tomboys and Nerds". It's an OTP story revolving around my favorite ship: Dexter x Buttercup. Get ready for Chapter 4 because it's going to be exciting, (at least for me). If you got questions, just head to the Omni Falls blog to hit me with some.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. The Lil Psycho</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Well, get ready everyone. Cause now is the time for my favorite chapter that I've worked on so far.</p><p>Also I don’t own Gravity Falls or Ben 10. They belong to Disney and CN and their good creators.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It’s a peaceful weekend at the Mystery Shack. As Grunkle Stan swindles tips from the tourists outside, Dipper, Mabel, and Soos sit at the table, discussing Dipper's mysterious watch and how he found it as the young Pine drinks a soda while his sister knits a sweater.</p><p>“So you found that watch in a mysterious ball?”, Soos summarizes. “And after that you fought a giant gnome monster by turning a rock alien?”</p><p>“<em>Diamond</em> alien.”, Dipper corrects.</p><p>“So does this mean you morph into aliens now?”, Soos questions.</p><p>“It seems so.”, Dipper replies.</p><p>“Cool dude. So what aliens can you turn into?”. Soos probes, curious on what aliens he can morph as.</p><p>“So far he’s morphed into the diamond alien, the red one that can shoot water, the speedy one, and the plant that can shoot fire but smells like a dumpster.”, Mabel tallies off as she continues to knit herself a new sweater.</p><p>Dipper rubs his chin in thought. “Hm. But there could be potentially more than that.”</p><p>Soos looks amazed by this. “Dude, that sounds awesome! Did you ever name any of them?”</p><p>“I only named Diamondhead, the crystal alien, Water Hazard, the water alien, and Swampfire, the plant one,”, Dipper answers as he heads to the trash bin to throw away the soda can.</p><p>“Why Swampfire?”, Soos asks.</p><p>“‘Cause he smells like a flaming dumpster, when he transforms.”, Mabel answers to which Dipper nods in agreement.</p><p>“Hm. Did you come up with a name for the speed alien?”, Soos inquiers.</p><p>“Why, yes, Soos.”, Dipper puffs his chest, priding himself on a cool name. “Blitz.” Such a cool name, he thinks. Unfortunately, Mabel and Soos don’t agree with this.</p><p>“Boooooooo!”, Mabel and Soos jeers.</p><p>“What? You guys got anything better?”, Dipper scoffs as he sits at the table, reading the Journal.</p><p>“Oh, I got one.”, Mabel answers, dropping her sweater she’s knitting to flail her arms dramatically. “Speedy!”.</p><p>“That sounds like a cartoon character.”, Dipper clarifies.</p><p>“Speedster?”, Soos tries a name.</p><p>“That sounds even more bland than Blitz.”</p><p>“Quicksilver!”</p><p>“The name’s taken. Plus the alien is more blue and black than silver.”</p><p>“Flash?”</p><p>“Taken.”</p><p>“Zoom Zoom?”</p><p>“That sounds like a jingle for a commercial.”</p><p>Mabel stops and thinks for a moment before she gets an idea, smiling. “How about XLR8?!”</p><p>“Awesome name, little dude.”, Soos is impressed as he holds his hand out for Mabel to high five. Dipper just shrugs, he honestly doesn’t mind because it would be nice to make names for the aliens that he would turn into. It would help for him to have an alias to turn towards in case someone would know about the aliens he would have.</p><p>But the chances of that happening are slim to none. As they start conversing on other random topics, the TV transitions into a commercial Soos recognizes.</p><p>“Hey, look. It's that commercial I was telling you guys about.”, Soos points to the screen showing an actor crying.</p><p>“Are you completely miserable?”, the announcer asks, to which the actor says “YES!”. The announcer continues, “Then you need to meet...” before a lady’s voice comes in with a silhouette in the background. “Gideon.”</p><p>“Gideon?”, Dipper asks, looking at the screen, curiously.</p><p>“What makes him so special?”, Mabel inquires, wanting to know more about this mysterious figure.</p><p>“He's a psychic.”, the announcer answers, intriguing the Pine Twins even more. “So don't waste your time with another so-called ‘man of mystery’.” The screen shows a clip of Stan coming out of an outhouse and is stamped with the word "FRAUD”. “Learn about tomorrow tonight at Gideon's Tent of Telepathy.”</p><p>“Wow, I'm getting all curiousy inside...”, Mabel admits.</p><p>“Well, don't get too curiousy.”, Stan answers with an annoyed expression on his face as he enters the room and flips up his eyepatch and hangs his suit jacket on his racket. “Ever since that monster Gideon rolled into town, I've had nothin' but trouble.”</p><p>“But, is he really psychic?”, Dipper asks his grunkle.</p><p>“I think we should go and find out.”, Mabel suggests, wanting to see this psychic for herself.</p><p>“Never! You're forbidden from patronizing the competition!”, Grunkle Stan exclaims in anger. “No one that lives under my roof is allowed under that Gideon's roof!” That said, the conman walks away to count his earnings, grumbling.</p><p>“Do tents have roofs?”, Dipper wonders out loud since Stan left the room.</p><p>“I think we just found our loophole... literally!”, Mabel proudly declares as she holds a string with a loophole, making her, Dipper, and Soos laugh at the cheesy joke, causing them to miss the announcer’s words in the end.</p><p>“So come down soon, folks. Gideon is expecting you.”</p>
<hr/><p>As the evening air is crisp as Dipper, Mabel, and Soos arrive at the Tent of Telepathy. At first glance, it looks like the Mystery Shack but in reverse, even down to Bud Gleeful standing at the entrance with a sack for customers to put money in.</p><p>“Whoa, this is like a bizarro version of the Mystery Shack.”, Dipper admits as he looks around. “They even have their own Soos.” He points to a maintenance worker who looks very similar to Soos, named Deuce, to which he glares at him.</p><p>“Sshh!”, Mabel shushes her brother. “It's starting!”</p><p>“Let's see what this monster looks like.”, Dipper murmurs skeptically. The crowd is holding their breath as a large silhouette comes forward on the stage, but starts to shrink with each step until it is in the center. The curtains pull back to reveal a short child younger than the Pines donning a large pompadour and wearing a baby blue business suit, complete with large shoulder pads, a jade bolo tie, and a flashy cape.</p><p>“Hello America!”, the Gideon greets the audience, his smile being warm. “My name is Li'l Gideon.” He claps and doves fly out of his hair, causing the crowd to cheer.</p><p>“That's Stan's mortal enemy?”, Dipper asks, confused by how this child could be the rival to their grunkle.</p><p>“But he's so wittle.”, Mabel adds, smiling at how cute the little guy is.</p><p>“Ladies and gentlemen, it is such a gift to have you here tonight!”, Gideon announces to the crowd. “Such a gift. I have a vision. I predict that you will soon all say, ‘aww.’” Gideon makes a cute pose and the crowd immediately gushes.</p><p>“It came true.”, Mabel speaks in awe, holding her cheeks in admiration.</p><p>“What?”, Dipper rolls his eyes. “I'm not impressed.”</p><p>“You're impressed!”, Mabel teases.</p><p>“Hit it, Dad!” Gideon calls his father, Bud Gleeful. He starts playing the piano and the young psychic starts dancing as he sings. “<em>Oh, I can see what others can't see. It ain't some sideshow trick, it's innate ability. Where others are blind, I am futurely inclined. And you too could see, if you was widdle ol' me!</em>”</p><p>“Come on, everybody, rise up! I want y'all to keep it going!” Gideon calls out to the crowd. They, including Soos and the twins, rise, seemingly unintentionally, and they start to clap along with the beat. This confuses Dipper as this happens.</p><p>“Wha—? How did he—?”, Dipper stammers in bewilderment as he looks at the young psychic.</p><p>“Keep it going!”, Gideon calls to the audience before pointing to an elderly woman in the crowd. “<em>You wish your son would call you more.</em>”</p><p>“I'm leaving everything to my cats!”, the old woman yells, with her cat on her lap affirming her.</p><p>“<em>I sense that you've been here before.</em>”, Gideon predicts as he points at Sheriff Blubs, who is wearing a shirt with Gideon's face on it and holding various other Li'l Gideon merchandise.</p><p>“Oh, what gave it away?”, he gushes.</p><p>“Come on.”, Dipper scoffs at this psychic’s pitiful predictions. In an instant, Gideon appears beside the Pine Twins, continuing his song. “<em>I'll read your mind if I'm able.</em>”</p><p>“<em>Something tells me you're named Mabel</em>”, Gideon predicts before heading back to the stage.</p><p>“How'd he do that?”, Mabel asks herself in amazement, she isn’t even wearing her name on her sweater.</p><p>“<em>So welcome all ye... to the Tent of Telepathy. And thanks for visiting... widdle ol' me!</em>”, Gideon finishes his dance as the song ends. The crowd cheers wildly as the young psychic catches his breath.</p><p>“Thank you! You people are the real miracles!”, Gideon thanks the crowd as he drinks a bottle of water. The crowd leaves, very pleased with the performance that occurred in the Tent of Telepathy. Except for the cynical Dipper.</p><p>“Woo! Yeah!”, Mabel cheers in excitement. “That was amazing!”</p><p>“No wonder our uncle's jealous.” Dipper smirks, knowing that despite being fraudulent about being a psychic, Gideon is at least more entertaining than Stan. “That kid's an even bigger fraud than Stan!”</p><p>“Oh, come on.”, Mabel encourages. ”His dance moves were adorable! And did you see his hair? It was like, whoosh!”</p><p>“You're too easily impressed.”, Dipper remarks, knowing that it doesn’t take much to make his sister go starry-eyed.</p><p>“Yeah, yeah!”, Mabel laughs, giving Dipper a playful shove as he starts laughing with her. What they don’t know is that they are a pair of eyes watching them leave in intrigue and obsession.</p>
<hr/><p>In the quiet morning, Dipper browses through the journal psychic related. He remembers what Gideon did to the audience by raising up unanimously like they were under his command, even Dipper himself, who never intended to get up. He wants to know if there is something that could do what the young psychic did to the audience because Dipper doesn’t believe that Gideon is inherently psychic, mind you, but he's aware that he’s able to control individuals somehow. So far he’s found nothing.</p><p>His focus is deterred by his bubbly sister. “Check it out, Dipper! I successfully bedazzled my face!”, Mabel exclaims as she blinks some of the sequins from her eyelids. “Ow.”</p><p>"Um...Is that permanent?", Dipper asks, not sure how he's supposed to react to something like this.</p><p>"I'm unappreciated in my time…", She laments, disappointed that her brother can't appreciate her artistic ability. The doorbell rings.</p><p>"Somebody answer that door!!", Grunkle Stan yells from upstairs.</p><p>"I'll get it!", Mabel answers as she wipes the sequins off her face as she heads to the door. She opens it up and finds a bashful Gideon on the other side.</p><p>"Howdy.", the young psychic warmly greets her.</p><p>"It's 'wittle ol' you!", Mabel gasps in surprise.</p><p>"Yeah, my song's quite catchy.", He laughs nervously before he gets to the point, rubbing his arm. "Now, I know we haven't formally met, but after yesterday's performance, I just couldn't get your laugh out of my head."</p><p>“You mean this one?”, the bubbly Pine asks before doing her signature laugh, much to Gideon’s delight.</p><p>“Oh, what a delight!”, Gideon smiles brightly. “Now, when I saw you in the audience, I said to myself, ‘Now there's a kindred spirit! Someone who appreciates the sparkly things in life.’”</p><p>“That's totally me!”, Mabel laughs before coughing up some sequins that land on Gideon's suit, bedazzling it. This amazes the young psychic.</p><p>“<em>Enchanting</em>.”, Gideon whispers. “<em>Utterly enchanting.</em>”</p><p>“Who's at the door?!”, Grunkle yells from inside.</p><p>“No one, Grunkle Stan!”, Mabel yells back in response.</p><p>“I appreciate your discretion.” Gideon thanks. “Stan's no fan of mine. I don't know how a lemon so sour could be related to a peach so sweet.”</p><p>“Aww, you’re just saying that.”, Mabel giggles at the compliment.</p><p>“Oh, I mean it with all sincerity.”, Gideon ensures her. “Now, what do you say we step away from here, and chat a bit more. Perhaps in my dressing room?”</p><p>“Oh! Makeovers!” Mabel exclaims in delight. “Yahoo!” She pokes Gideon in his stomach a little too hard.</p><p>Gideon laughs before holding his gut in pain, mumbling “.....Ow.”</p>
<hr/><p>Mabel returns to the Mystery Shack with her makeover: her hair is curled and held in place an absurd amount of hairspray, overmanucured nails, and excessive amount of makeup. She sees her brother at the same chair from earlier, deeply engrossed into his journal. “Hey Dipper. What's goin' oooon?”, she asks as she dangles manicured fingernails over Dipper's head.</p><p>He looks up from the journal to see her fingernails and slaps them away in surprise. “Whoa, where have you been? And what's going on with those fingernails, you look like a wolverine.” He really doesn’t like this much makeup on his sister. It’s making her look even more bizarre than the sequins she had on her face.</p><p>“I know, right?”, she answers, playfully growling and scratching the air. “I was hanging out with my new pal, Gideon. He is one dapper little man.”</p><p>Dipper sighs. “Mabel, I wouldn't trust anyone whose hair is bigger than their head.”</p><p>“Oh, leave him alone!”, Mabel defends her new pal. “You never want to do girly stuff with me! You and Soos get to do boy stuff all the time.” Anything girly she wanted to do, Dipper would opt out and do boy stuff with Soos. Gideon’s a breath of fresh air to share the same interests she has.</p><p>"What do you mean?", Dipper asks, only for Soos to come in the room, excited.</p><p>"Hey dude, you ready to blow up these hot dogs in the microwave one by one?!", the handyman asks, holding the hot dog pack in his face.</p><p>"Am I!", Dipper answers, equally excited as they run into the kitchen to pop the dogs in the microwave, laughing. Mabel sighs, rolling her eyes as Dipper proves her point.</p><p>The next day arrives and Gideon takes Mabel to the roof of his factory. They are able to see the whole town of Gravity Falls.</p><p>"Whoa, the view from your family's factory is nuts!”, Mabel exclaims at the view from up top. “Good thing we both bought our…..”</p><p>“Opera glasses!”, she and Gideon cheer, bringing them before pointing them at each other, laughing.</p><p>“Mabel, when I'm up here lookin' down on all those little ol' people, I feel like I'm king of all I survey.” Gideon explains, whispering the last part ominously. He turns to her, smiling. “I guess that makes you my queen!”</p><p>"You are being so nice to me right now, quit it!” Mabel laughs, smacks him in the stomach, playfully.</p><p>“I can't quit it. I am speaking from the heart.” Gideon admits, holding his heart.</p><p>“From the where-now?”. Mabel is confused by where the young psychic is going.</p><p>“Mabel, I've never felt this close with anyone. So, so close.” Gideon explains, stroking his crush's hair, giggling.</p><p>“Look Gideon, um…”, Mabel tries to explain as she pushes his hand away, uncomfortable. “I like you a lot, but let's just be friends.”</p><p>“At least just give me a chance." Gideon insists. "Mabel, will you do me the honor of going on a date with me?”</p><p>“A play date?", Mabel helplessly asks.</p><p>"Uh-uh."</p><p>"A shopping date?”</p><p>“Nope. It'll just be one li'l ol' date, I swear on my lucky bolo tie.” Gideon swears, holding his bolo tie. Mabel looks at the smitten psychic's green eyes, uncertain. She knows that Gideon means well and it would be cruel of her to leave him up on his offer. After all, he promises for one date and he seems to be a man of his word.</p><p>“Ummm. Okay, then... I guess…”, Mabel answers, still feeling weary about it internally.</p><p>“Mabel Pines, you have made me the happiest boy in the world!”, Gideon laughs, giving her a big hug. She doesn't feel fully comfortable with it until she realizes something.</p><p>“Are you sniffing my hair?”</p>
<hr/><p>“It's not a date-date, it's just, you know, I didn't want to hurt his feelings and so I figured I'd throw him a bone.”, she explains her dating situation as she and her brother play some video games in the living room.</p><p>“Mabel, guys don't work that way.”, Dipper refutes, his focus never faltering from the game. “You give them an inch, they’ll take a mile. At some point, he's gonna fall in love with you.”</p><p>“Yeah right. I'm not that lovable.”, she scoffs, before executing Dipper in the game, cheering in victory. “Yes!”</p><p>“Okay, we agree on something here.” he grouses and drops the controller. The doorbell rings outside, causing Mabel to stand up and get it.</p><p>“I’ll go get it”, Mabel goes to answer the door, only for a white stallion horse to burst through, neighing. This causes her to scream in surprise and take a few steps back. She looks up from the horse to see Gideon donning cowboy attire, extending her hand out towards her.</p><p>“A night of enchantment awaits, m'lady!”, he says.</p><p>“Oh boy.”, she mumbles, to herself. After the horse ride towards their destination, an aquatic themed restaurant which is one of the expensive and finest restaurants in Gravity Falls, they’re able to get their own private booth. Even Gideon’s stallion is allowed in as it drinks from the fountain.</p><p>“I can't believe they let us bring a horse in here.”, Mabel says awkwardly. Honestly, the extravagance of this place is not something she’s used to being in. Even the menu options when she first checked looked very expensive, even though Gideon said he would pay for it.</p><p>“Well, people have a hard time saying no to me.”, Gideon winks at her, putting his feet up on the table. As he does this, a waiter arrives to refill their glasses with crystal water, smiling.</p><p>“Ah, Monsieur Gideon! Ze feet on ze table! An excellent choice!”, the waiter compliments.</p><p>“Jean Luc, what did we discuss about eye contact?”, Gideon asks, not even glancing at the garcon, frowning.</p><p>“Yes, yes, very good.”, the waiter adheres, walking back and keeping his eyes away from the young psychic.</p><p>Mabel actually looks down at her plate to see various forks, “I've never seen so many forks.”, she mentions in amazement. “And water with bubbles in it? Ooh lala, oui, oui.”</p><p>“Oh! Parlez vous francais?”, Gideon asks her.</p><p>“...I have no idea what you're saying.”, She admits. This makes the young psychic chuckle as their orders arrive, a live lobster for Mabel and a steak with mash potatoes for Gideon.</p><p>“I gotta say Mabel”, Gideon speaks. “I’ve been to this restaurant many times but tonight, it feels very special.”</p><p>“Yeah…”, she says as spokes at the lobster on her plate which it pinches her fork in return.</p><p>"And tomorrow's date promises to top this one in every way!”, Gideon promises.</p><p>This causes her to jolt up in realization at what he just said. “Whoa whoa, you said just one date, and this was it.”</p><p>“Hark! What a surprise!", Gideon says, seemingly ignoring what Mabel is saying. "A red crested South American rainbow macaw!” As he said that, a giant macaw lands on Gideon's forearm. He silently counts to three before the macaw talks.</p><p>“MABEL! WILL YOU- ACCOMPANY- GIDEON- TO- THE BALLROOM DANCE- THIS THURBDAY-", Gideon shakes the bird briefly. "THURSDAY?!” The macaw coughs up a letter and flies away. After that declaration, many of the patrons started gushing at Gideon's display of affection to the point crowd near the booth in excitement on Mabel's decision.</p><p>“They're expectin' us. Please say you'll go.”, Gideon asks her, holding up the letter and unaware of the pressure he's putting on her.</p><p>“Oh, Gideon, I'm sorry, but I'm gonna have to say-”, Mabel starts before looking back at the patrons and to Gideon, who are waiting for her to say yes. She's been promised only one date and that's all she wanted, but the pressure from saying no to someone who went out their way to do this seems too steep. She doesn't want to disappoint anyone, especially Gideon. After a deep breath, she makes her decision.</p>
<hr/><p>At the Mystery Shack, Stan arrives in front, looking miffed as he holds a newspaper article showing a picture of Gideon and Mabel together with Dipper, Wendy, and Soos. "Hey, hey! What the jackal is Mabel doing in the paper next to that crazy pickpocket Gideon?!" Stan specifically told to not hang around the little gremlin. Why don't they listen?</p><p>"Oh, yeah, it's like a big deal.”, Wendy explains, looking up from her magazine. “Everybody's talking about Gideon and Mabel's big date tonight."</p><p>"WHAT?! That little shyster is dating my great niece!?", Stan yells.</p><p>"I wonder what the new name will be for the power couple. Mabideon? Gideabel?", Soos brainstorms before gasping. "Magidbeleon!" Stan turns towards a nervous Dipper.</p><p>“You knew anything about this kid?", he interrogates him.</p><p>"I didn't!’, Dipper answers. “I didn't hear about it and plus, I told her not to do it anyway." After hearing this, Stan grumbles before re-entering, wearing his suit.</p><p>"Yeah, well it ends tonight.”, Stan declares, heading towards the door. “I'm going right down to that little skunk's house; this is gonna stop RIGHT now!" He slams the door and heads to the car, driving to the Gleeful residence. Stan's car skids to a halt in front of Gideon's house. He gets out of the car and marches towards the front lawn and starts knocking on the door, loudly.</p><p>"Gideon, you little punk! Open up!", Stan yells before reading a sign on the door that says ‘Please Pardon This Garden’, before slamming the sign towards the ground. "I will pardon NOTHING!" Gideon doesn’t answer the door, rather, his father, Bud Gleeful answers it with a balmy smile.</p><p>"Why, Stanford Pines! What a delight!", Bud greets the conman.</p><p>"Out of the way Bud, I'm looking for Gideon!", Stan answers, pushing past the patriarch to find the little twerp.</p><p>"Well, I haven't seen the boy around.”, Bud informs, his smile never leaving. “But since you're here, you simply must come in for coffee!" He gently pulls Stan inside.</p><p>"But-but I came-", Stan stutters, trying to get back to his task.</p><p>"Ah, ah, ah. It's imported.”, Bud explains. “All the way from Colombia." They walk as the tea starts to get made.</p><p>"Wow... I went to jail there once." Stan remembers fondly. He allows himself to enjoy the interior design of the house, whistling. “Some digs you got here.”, he compliments before eyes focus on a clown painting. “Oh, this. This is beautiful.” Bud and Stan sit down and enjoy some freshly brewed coffee.</p><p>"Now, I hear that your niece and my Gideon are, well, they're singin' in harmony lately so to speak.", Bud recalls, seemingly happy for son’s blooming romance with his beau.</p><p>"Uh, yeah, and I'm against it!", Stan declares, pushing a couch cushion to prove a point.</p><p>“No no no. I see it as a fantastic business opportunity.”, Bud explains to Stan as they pass across the family photo in which there was Bud, Mrs. Gleeful, and their two children: a younger Gideon and a blonde haired teen with a bored expression. “We've been at each other's throats for far too long, yes we have. This is our big chance to set aside our rivalry and pool our collective profit, you see.”</p><p>Stan closes the register. “I'm listening.”</p><p>While Stan and Bud are talking about financial profiting, Mabel returns to the Shack after an emotionally draining date with the lobster still on her. She walks in to see Dipper relaxing at the table as he's reading his from the Journal.</p><p>He looks up to see his sister come in. “Hey. How'd it go?”</p><p>“I don't know.”, Mabel answers, putting the crustacean in the fish tank. “...I have a lobster now.”</p><p>“Well, at least it's over and you'll never have to go out with him again.”, Dipper proclaims before going back to reading. He realizes his sister hasn’t said anything, onliy tapping on the glass of the fish tank. “Mabel? It's over, right? Right?”</p><p>She turns around and exclaims frustratingly, flailing her arms. “He asked me out again and I didn't know how to say no!”</p><p>“Mabel, it's not that hard. All you have to do is say no.”</p><p>“It's not that simple, Dipper.”, Mabel says. “I do like Gideon, as a friend/little sister, so I didn't want to hurt his feelings! I just need to get things back to where they used to be. You know, friends.”</p><p>Easier said than done. Dipper thinks to himself, shaking his head. Mabel has always been the one that tried to make everyone else feel joyous. Disappointing them is something she hates doing.</p><p>True to Dipper’s thought process, Mabel tried to say how she really felt about dating Gideon, only for her to backtrack and just go dancing with him on the ballroom floor. She tried again when they were getting some food, but she got nervous as people were gushing at the “couple”. Even now, as they’re boat riding down the stream with Old Man McGucket paddling, she’s mentally trying to push herself into telling Gideon the truth.</p><p>“Hah, you know I thought dancing was gonna be the end of the evening, right?”, Mabel recalls, nervously as Gideon said that they were just going dancing. Gideon holds her hands, lovingly.</p><p>“Don't you want this evenin' to last, my sweet?”, the young psychic asks.</p><p>She instinctively jolts away. “NO!”, she answers quickly before backtracking and trying to be more passive towards the clingy Gleeful. “I mean yes. I mean I'm always happy to hang out with a friend, buddy, pal, chum, other word for friend…”</p><p>“Pal?”, McGucket chimes in.</p><p>“I already said pal.”, Mabel answers before coming up with another word. “Mate?”</p><p>“How about soulmate?”, Gideon asks, lovingly. As he said, fireworks appear with a heart and Mabel’s name inside of it. She looks distraught, she wanted to just to let Gideon off easy but he’s basically put her in a situation that she can’t say no to.</p>
<hr/><p>Dipper walks downstairs, humming. Once gets closer down the stairs, he hears his sister talking towards herself.</p><p>“....I mean, he's so nice, but.. I can't keep doing this. But I can't break his heart. I have no way out!”, Mabel rants towards, walking around in a circle, trying to find a way out of this.</p><p>Dipper walks in. “What in the heck happened on that date?”, he asks her.</p><p>“I don't know!”, Mabel admits, holding her head in frustration. “I was in the friend zone, and then before I knew what was happening, he pulled me into the romance zone. It was like quick sand! Chubby quicksand!”</p><p>Dipper shakes his head and puts a consoling hand on shoulder. “Mabel, come on. It's not like you're gonna have to marry Gideon.”, he comforts her. Unfortunately, Stan doesn’t get the memo as he walks in with a Team Gideon T-Shirt.</p><p>“Great news, Mabel. You have to marry Gideon!”, Stan informs, much to her distress.</p><p>Mabel is distraught. “Wh-what?!”</p><p>“Yep. It's all part of my long term deal with Buddy Gleeful. There's a lot of cash tied up in this thing.”, the conman explains, pointing to his T-Shirt. “Plus I got this shirt. Ugh, I am fat.” Mabel runs out of the living room, screaming.</p><p>“Bodies change, kid!”, Stan yells to her, missing the point as to why she ran. “Bodies change….” Dipper just sighs and walks into the attic to see Mabel hiding in her sweater. It’s getting that bad.</p><p>“Oh no. Mabel?”, Dipper asks.</p><p>She’s cradling her head in her sweater and rocking back and forth. ,“Mabel's not here. She's in sweater town.”</p><p>He crouches near her with a sympathetic look on her face. “Are you gonna come out of sweater town?”, he asks her, only for a whimper to be her response. “Alright, enough is enough. If you can't break up with Gideon, I'll do it for you.”</p><p>She pops her head out with a hopeful expression. “You will?” He nods his head in response and she gives him the biggest hug that she can. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”</p><p>True to his word, Dipper took a long trip across Gravity Falls flying as a new alien he found in the watch until he reached his destination: The Club, another restaurant known for its extravagance. He reverts back to his human form and takes a big breath before reaching inside to see Gideon sitting in a booth awaiting Mabel. Dipper heads to the booth and clears his throat.</p><p>“Oh. Dipper Pines, how are you?”, Gideon greets the young Pine with simulated delight. “You look good, you look good.”</p><p>“Thanks, you uh…”, Dipper laughs nervously. “Look, Gideon. We've got to talk. Mabel isn't joining you tonight, she uh, she doesn't want to see you anymore. She's uh….. kinda weirded out by you, no offense.” After he says those words, Gideon sits there with the same expression on his face processing those words. He stays like that for three minutes, creeping Dipper out.</p><p>“So what you're sayin' is...you've come between us.”, Gideon says very slowly, his eye twitching ever so slightly.</p><p>Dipper starts to get a little nervous. “You're not gonna like, freak out or anything, are ya?”</p><p>“Of course not.”, Gideon laughs, faking a smile on his face. “These things happen. Bygones, you know.”</p><p>Dipper sighs, relaxing. “Oh, well that's a relief.” Just as he says that, the watch twitched from red to green, beeping to signify that it’s charged up. This action causes him to jolt a bit in surprise and Gideon to look at it in intrigue.</p><p>"That's an interesting watch you got there.”, Gideon inquires as looks at the watch. There's something engaging about it. ”Where'd you get it?", Dipper instinctively hides his hand with the watch behind his back for a moment before coming with an answer.</p><p>“Uh...”, Dipper stumbles before finding an answer. “I-I bought it from…..Japan. It took alot of money to get and it was a...rare item to search for, you know.”</p><p>Gideon continues to stare at the young Pine, with a smile that starts to become eerie. "Fascinatin'."</p><p>Dipper looks left and right, chuckling nervously. “So. Okay. Cool. Sorry man, again but uh, hey, thumbs up, right?” He turns around to leave, unaware that Gideon still had that malicious smile on his face.</p><p>“<em>Thumbs up indeed, my friend.</em>”, he whispers to himself.</p><p>As he reaches outside, Dipper lets out a breath that he didn’t know held. “Huh, that went better than expected.” He honestly expected for Gideon to flip out if anything, he sighs and heads back to Shack, ready to tell her that her Gideon situation is taken care of…..or so he thinks.</p><p>In the Gleeful Residence, Gideon is staring into his mirror, seething with rage. He usually doesn’t get this angry most of the time, but there are a few things that make reach this peak. The first cause for this could be that he couldn’t get what he wants and the second being siblings. Everytime, he hears anything about siblings, it always goes back to <em>his older brother</em>. How his father or mother would look at the pictures of <em>him</em> fondly, how they wouldn’t have so much finance without some of <em>his</em> help, how <em>he</em> would always be respectful towards his parents, how successful <em>he</em> is.<em> Him, him, him</em>. No matter what he tries, he’ll never have the power, attention, and success to the magnitude of what <em>his older brother</em> has.</p><p>With Dipper, he did two things wrong: him being the brother of Mabel and him taking his love away from him. “Dipper Pines, you have no idea what you've done!” He growls, grabbing his amulet tightly and a candle starts to levitate and the light bulbs on his boudoir explode. His other furniture starts levitating. “You've just made the biggest mistake of your life!” And like that, he throws the levitated objects on the ground hard enough to shake the room.</p><p>Bud Gleeful arrives into the room, shocked to see mostly everything destroyed. “Gideon Charles Gleeful, clean up your room this instant!”, he scolds his son, firmly.</p><p>“I CAN BUY AND SELL YOU, OLD MAN!”, the young psychic yells furiously, scowling at his father, who looks taken aback before shrugging.</p><p>“Fair enough.”, Bud sighs before closing the door. Gideon turns his attention away from the door and looks down to see a picture of his love, Mabel and the wretch who angers him, Dipper. He holds his amulet and concentrates on incinerating the side with Dipper, leaving Mabel on it. He laughs with malicious intent.</p>
<hr/><p>After the breakup, Mabel has been feeling a whole lot better. To celebrate, Soos and the twins decide to have a simple game Soos tucks a pillow under his shirt and they try to tackle him.</p><p>“Hit me, dudes.”, Soos holds his arms out, waiting for them to charge at him. They come at him in full force, laughing as they fall down. “Feels good.”</p><p>“I'm so glad everything's back to normal!”, Mabel sighs in content, feeling relieved that the Gideon ordeal is over.</p><p>“You said it.”, Dipper agrees, chuckling. As he speaks, the phone rings from inside the Shack, causing the twins to look at each other.</p><p>“Your turn.”, they both say, only for Dipper to say it later. He gets up and heads inside to answer it. “Hello?”</p><p>“Toby Determined, Gravity Falls Gossiper.”</p><p>“Oh hey man. Sorry for accusing you of murder last week.”</p><p>“Water under the bridge! Say, we want to interview you about whether you've seen anything unUSUAL about this here TOWN since you've arrived.”</p><p>“Oh, finally! I thought nobody would ever ask! I have notes and theories! Uh huh, uh huh.” He pulls out a notepad and writes the address Toby tells him. “412 Gopher Road. Tonight? Got it.” He heads back out, telling Mabel and Soos where he’s and when he’ll be back. After a long walk to his destination, he arrives at a factory. Dipper looks at the notepad to check and see if he has the right address, to which he realizes that he does. He opens the door to the factory.</p><p>“Hello?”, Dipper calls out, hearing nothing. He looks inside to see that nobody’s here and turns around to leave, only for the door to slam shut. He pushes on the door to try to open it to no avail. Suddenly, lights turn on and he turns around to see Gideon in a swivel chair, petting a doll of himself.</p><p>“Hello, friend.”, the young psychic greets him, coldly.</p><p>“Ugh, Gideon.”, Dipper groans, exasperatedly. Why is he bothering him?</p><p>“Dipper Pines, how long have you been living in this town?”, Gideon asks the Pine, playing with his toy. “A week or two? You like it here? Enjoy the scenery?” His voice changes from veiled child-like curiosity to quiet fury at the second half of his question.</p><p>Dipper starts getting uneasy but calms himself. “What do you want from me, man?”, he demands, wanting the young psychic to get to the point.</p><p>“Listen carefully, boy.”, Gideon’s tone becomes deathly serious. “This town has secrets you couldn't begin to understand!”</p><p>“Is this about Mabel?”, Dipper asks, getting to the point. “I told you, she's not into you!”</p><p>This makes Gideon slam his arms on the swivel chair. “LIAR! YOU turned her against me!”, he yells as he jumps from his chair, grabbing his amulet and marches toward Dipper. “She was my peach dumplin'!”</p><p>“Uh, you okay, man?”, Dipper asks, walking back. Gideon lifts his hand up and Dipper’s body is covered in an ethereal blue aura and lifted into the air. With a swipe of his hand, Dipper is thrown onto boxes hard. He pulls himself up only to see Gideon grinning at him with malice.</p><p>“Readin' minds isn't all I can do.”, Gideon laughs ominously, enjoying the dread etched on Dipper’s face.</p><p>“But-but you're a fake.”, Dipper tries to explain.</p><p>“Oh? Then tell me, Dipper….”, the sadistic child inquires, levitating various merchandise and objects. “Is this fake?” After that question, he starts throwing plates, spoons, and forks at Dipper, who dodges a good portion but gets nicked in the face, vest, and knee, much to the vengeful child’s pleasure. Gideon decides to up the ante by throwing cups at constantly moving Pine.</p><p>Dipper does everything he can to avoid the merchandise Gideon telekinetically throws at him. The ruthless psychic grabs a cabinet and launches it at the Pine, who jumps out the way to avoid it but ends up hitting the back of his head in the process. He rubs it to ease the pain before he sees the malicious Gideon levitating above him, sneering.</p><p>“Grunkle Stan was right!”, Dipper yells at the young psychic. “You are a monster!”</p><p>“Your sister will be mine!”, Gideon declares madly, laughing as he lifts up another cabinet to launch at the young Pine, who hides behind a stack of heavy boxes. The cabinet crashes into the boxes to the wall. Dipper grunts as he realizes that his right arm is bruised, but thanks to the boxes taking most of the damage from the cabinet, he’s mostly fine.</p><p>Dipper pushes himself up as much as he can to activate the watch. It beeps on and tries to find the right alien that can help. Diamondhead?, Dipper thinks. Swampfire?! Water Hazard?! XLR8?! Come on, there has to be an alien that I’m familiar with! He tries to find the aliens that he knows but to no avail. He almost stops seeing a fire alien. But could this help? He doesn’t know what it can-</p><p>“Come on out, boy!!”, Gideon demands , levitating cutlery that are poised to skewer the shapeshifter. “I ain’t finished punishing you yet!” Dipper hears this and tries to move, accidentally pressing it via moving across the boxes. As this happens, a massive green light illuminates under the boxes, temporarily blinding the vengeful psychic.</p><p>“What in tarnation?!”, Gideon asks, puzzled. That green light just came from under there. How did this scoundrel create a light that bright? This might be a distraction of sorts. Gideon thinks as he starts getting impatient and levitates the boxes away. But before he can finish, a massive torrent of flames breaks out of the clutter in an explosive fashion.</p><p>Standing opposed to the malicious child is a confused charcoal man. He’s composed of a brownish-red rocky texture with intense heat radiating from underneath, specifically ending out of his flaming head, hands, and feet. This shocks the young psychopath before he gets enraged.</p><p>“How?!”, Gideon demands. “How did you manage to turn yourself into a Pyronite?!” His outrage causes the fiery man to jolt out of his stupor and gives a determined scowl towards the delusional psychic. <em>So this is another flame alien like Swampfire. Maybe I should call him Heatblast</em>, Dipper thinks before mentally sighing. <em>Really wished I had something on this alien that….Gideon somehow knows?</em> He shakes his head and focuses on the present.</p><p>“Stop this, Gideon.”, the Pyronite demands before getting into a battle stance. “This is your first and final warning.” His ultimatum provokes the sociopathic psychic more than he’s already feeling at the moment. He lifts up his patented cutlery and launches them at the morphed Pine, who only raises his hand and gives a precise fireball that melts them and charges towards Gideon, pelting more fireballs at him. The crazy psychic sets up a shield as the fireballs explode and disperses on impact. The embers land on some of the boxes, to which causes them to ignite.</p><p>“You think you have the right to threaten me, boy?!”, Gideon scowls, telekinetically grabbing the flaming boxes and tosses them at the flaming alien, who blasts them into nothing but ash. This gives the young psychic enough time to grab the Pyronite and throw him out through the wall.</p><p>Heatblast rubs his head, groaning in pain. “Ow...that hurt.” Dipper gets up to see a levitating and apoplectic Gideon, holding up cabinets and heavy boxes. The insane psychic glares at the familiar emblem on the center of the Pyronite’s chest. <em>That design looks familiar</em>, Gideon thinks before he realizes it. <em>That watch!! That watch is what is allowed that wretch to morph into that Pyronite!</em> First, Dipper turns the love of his life against him and now, he has a piece of technology that can morph him into any alien he sees fit? The insane psychic doesn’t know which one makes even more angrier. He decides to channel his anger into throwing his crates at his pyrokinetic opponent.</p><p>The transformed Pine dodges most of the crates and blasts the rest of them away. He looks at his fiery hands before looking at his fiery hands before looking at Gideon, who is pulling out more items from the factory as potential weaponry. The Pyro-Pine looks down, quickly trying to form a plan. <em>He probably can’t attack and defend at the same time. I can exploit that</em>. He points both flaming hands on the ground. <em>Let’s hope Soos was right about copying that comic book character.</em> The flames escape from Heatblast’s hands and he finds himself being able to rocket up into the air via propulsion. Once he finds his balance, he flies towards Gideon at high speeds, reaching ascension and delivers a two handed fireball attack.</p><p>The vengeful Gleeful puts up his shield as Dipper delivers a massive fireball. Just at the right moment, Gideon grabs the fireball, the flames going from a raging orange to ethereal turquoise, and throws it back to the descending Pyronite. Reaching high velocities, Heatblast crashes into the grassy ground to leave a crater and upheaval of dirt, he propels him out of the crater after a moment’s pass. Gideon levitates a massive assortment of lamb shears and in tow, the morphed Pine delivers an intense stream of fire that melts them onto the ground in a hot mesh.</p><p>While Dipper’s attention was on melting the scissors, Gideon sneakily grabs two of his branded water gallons. After he deals with the scissors, he sets himself up and tosses them into Heatblast, the water causes the Pyronite’s fire to be extinguished.</p><p>“Uh oh”, Heatblast is surprised that his flames are out. <em>What do I do?</em>, Dipper thinks. Before coming up with an idea. <em>If my flames are high enough to melt metal, maybe I can reignite-</em> Heatblast is slammed by a barrage of heavy boxes courtesy of the vengeful Gideon. He finishes up his attack by grabbing one of his cabinets and lifts it up under the Dipper before slamming it down hard on top of the morphed Pine.</p><p>“What can you do now, boy?!”, Gideon yells, grabbing every item in the factory, ready to finish off the transforming Pine. “That Pyronite form takes time to reignite! Now that you’re weakened….” Heatblast gets up slowly, his heat coming back. Gideon tosses everything at him with devastating force. “DIE!!”</p><p>The Pyronite gets himself up to deliver an equally powerful attack. “HAAA!!”, Heatblast screams intensely as he delivers a massive flow of flames, greater than before.</p><p>The barrage of items being thrown at high velocity and the great stream of fire causes a massive collusion. The massive collusion causes an explosion to erupt instantly, making Gideon to skid across the ground and Heatblast rolls across the grass, burning it, slamming into a tree before falling to the ground. After a few moments pass, Gideon and Heatblast get up, both looking heavily damaged. For Gideon, his blue suit is mostly covered in dirt and ripped on the sleeves and face is scrapped, there’s some cuts on his arm. Despite this, he still looks very angry, panting for his breath. Heatblast’s movement is slower than usual and, like Gideon, is panting, feeling exhausted.</p><p>Heatblast decides to ignite another fireball, while Gideon gets ready to counterattack. Just when he’s about to launch at the Gleeful, he hears a dreadful sound. <em>Beep-Beep-Beep.</em> Heatblast’s eyes widened. “Oh, no.”, he rasps before being enveloped in a crimson light. What replaces the Pyronite is a beaten up Dipper, who’s levitated by an apoplectic Gideon and slams him into the wall of the factory, knocking the wind out of him. He tries to break free but to no avail.</p><p>“Will you just give up?!”, Dipper yells, glaring at the crazy child. “She's never gonna date you, man!”</p><p>“THAT’S A LIE!!” Gideon screams in anger before his attention is turned towards a flaming box of lamb shears. He turns back at the restrained Pine, smiling sadistically. “And I'm gonna make sure you never lie to me again, friend.” He levitates the flaming lamb shears slowly towards Dipper, who tries to move out the way but can’t. The deranged psychic just keeps laughing in twisted delight as the shears get closer and closer towards cutting the Pine’s face.</p><p>“Gideon! We have to talk!” Those words make Gideon freeze in surprise. He turns to see a livid Mabel with her fists clenched.</p><p>“M-Mabel. My marshmalla.”, Gideon drops the shears on the ground before fixing his hair, nervous as he’s caught redhanded. “What are you doin' here?”</p><p>Mabel closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. “I'm sorry Gideon, but I can't be your marshmallow. I needed to be honest and tell you that myself.”</p><p>Gideon is taken aback by what she says. She doesn’t want to be his marshmallow? “I-I don't understand.” he responds, squeezing the amulet that represents his broken heart, which in return, squeezes Dipper.</p><p>Dipper feels his body tightening up, uncomfortably. “Uh, Mabel!? This probably isn't the best time to be brutally honest with him!”, he calls out to her. Mabel gets a brief look of concern on her face when she glances at Dipper before giving a “sincere” smile towards the distraught Gideon.</p><p>“Hey, but we can still be makeover buddies.”, she offers, holding his hands gently. “Wouldn't you like that?”</p><p>“Really?”, Gideon asks, hopeful as he loosens his grip on the amulet. Mabel’s eyes never left the amulet and at the right moment, she takes the chance.</p><p>She snatches Gideon's amulet off and Dipper falls down. “No, not really! You were attacking my brother, what the heck?!”she exclaims. Gideon is shocked by what Mabel just did and tries to get his tie.</p><p>“My tie! Give it back!”, Gideon demands, only for Mabel throws the amulet to Dipper who gets up and runs after the amulet’s trajectory and catches it.</p><p>“Not so powerful without this, are you?” Dipper taunts but Gideon screams and charges at Dipper with sudden speed, making him drop the amulet and knocking them both off the cliff.</p><p>“Dipper!”</p><p>Dipper and Gideon scream. Gideon punches Dipper and the two start hitting each other before they realize that they’re getting closer to the ground, making them scream again. But before they splat on the ground, they’re both covered in the ethereal blue aura. They look up to see Mabel, holding the mystic amulet, levitating along with them and then floats down.</p><p>“Listen Gideon, it's over. I will never, ever, date you.”, she declares. With that, she drops them down and throws the amulet to the ground, breaking it. The ethereal glow howling away in the wind.</p><p>“MY POWERS! Oh this isn't over. This isn't the last you'll see of wittle... ol' me.”, the crazed psychic declares, walking into the dark forest.</p>
<hr/><p>Stan finishes signing papers in the Gleeful’s living room area. “Ah, this is livin', brother.”, Stan sighs in content, leaning back on the couch.</p><p>“From now on it's all name brand foods and clown paintings.”, Bud Gleeful agrees, taking a swig of his coffee. Just as he says that, a livid and beaten up Gideon bursts through the door. “Gideon? Are you—?”</p><p>Ignoring his father, Gideon stands on the coffee table, scowling at Stan, pointing his fist at him. “Stanford Pines, I rebuke thee! I rebuke thee!”</p><p>Stan is confused. “Rebuke? Is that a word.”</p><p>“The entire Pines' family have invoked my wrath! You will all pay recompense for your transgressions!”, Gideon declares as he points his nemesis.</p><p>“What, you got like a word-a-day calendar or something?”, Stan asks, still not taking the young psychic’s rage seriously.</p><p>“But-but sunshine?”, Bud intervenes, laughing nervously. “What about our arrangement with Mabel and—?”</p><p>“SILENCE!”, Gideon yells at his father, “The deal is off!!”</p><p>Bud just sighs, before looking at the conman. “Well, I see that he's takin' to one of his rages again. Sorry Stan, but I have to side with Gideon on this one.” He rips up the contract, terminating any plans for Mystery Shack and Tent of Telepathy merger.</p><p>“Okay, okay. I can see when I'm not wanted.”, Stan realizes before grabbing the clown painting and starts to run.</p><p>“Stan, I'm-I'm sorry but I'm gonna need that painting back! Stan? STAN!”, Bud tries to call out to the conman, only for his words to go on deaf ears.</p><p>“TRY AND CATCH ME, SUCKERS!”, Stan declares, running to his car, putting the clown painting in the back, driving away. After a long ride, he arrives at the Mystery Shack, where he hangs up the clown painting. “I coulda had it all.”, Stan contemplates. He turns and looks at the twins, who look exhausted physically and emotionally exhausted. “What the heck happened to you two?”</p><p>“Gideon.”, The Pine Twins answer, equally tired after dealing with the crazy psychic.</p><p>“Gideon. Yeah, the little mutant ‘swore vengeance’ on the whole family.”, Stan scoffs sitting in the recliner, mockingly raising his fist in the air imitating the angry psychic. “Ha, I guess he's gonna try to nibble my ankles or somethin'.”</p><p>Dipper gets up a bit. He realizes that Gideon’s powerless without his amulet. “Oh, yeah. How's he gonna destroy us now, huh? Try to guess what number we're thinking of?”</p><p>Mabel gets up, smiling at the young psychic’s misfortune. “He'll never guess what number I'm thinking of.”, Mabel says before laughing. “NEGATIVE EIGHT! No one would guess a <em>negative</em> number.”</p><p>“Uh oh.”, Stan gasps jokingly at the Twins. “He's plannin' on destruction right now!” He lays on top of the twins, to which they all laugh, enjoying Gideon’s loss.</p><p>Meanwhile, at the Gleeful Household, in Gideon's room. He's making dolls of the Pines family, grumbling and growling to himself. He plays with the Mabel doll, looking at it lovingly as he imitates her voice. ”Oh, Gideon, I still love you. If only my family weren't in the way.” He picks up the Stan doll, disgusts etched on his face as he impersonates him. “Look at me. I'm old, and I'm smelly.” He grabs the Dipper doll with a scowl on his face, mocking the Pine. “Hey, what are you gonna do without your precious amulet now that I got a watch that allows me to morph into aliens?”</p><p>He laughs, ominously. “Oh you'll see boy…”, he closes Journal 2.</p><p>“<em>You'll see.</em>”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>You know, I couldn’t have thought that working on chapters would range from a month to a whole year. But I gotta say: this is one of my favorite chapters to work on so far because 1.) Heatblast rules and 2.) I get to finally show off my writing skills with fight scenes. Who would’ve thought that I would be able to complete this chapter in February?</p><p>For Tomboys and Nerds, I’mma put it on hold as I don’t wanna overwork myself.</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>So what do you guys think? It took me roughly an entire week to get this done but it gave me an appropriate schedule for getting these down. For now, I'm going to take a little longer so I can set up the pre-writes for the next 5 chapters. Please give me constructive criticism and/or praise. Thanks guys!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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